


Dear Angel, Dear Demon

by File_13



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Don't Judge, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fighting, Gen, Herobrine needs some friends, I Don't Even Know, I'm working on it, Minecraft, Minecraft Deities, My First AO3 Post, Notch is the Creator, POV Alternating, POV Female Character, POV First Person, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Steve is here, Supernatural Elements, There's a past, What Have I Done, hi, references, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2018-10-07 10:56:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10358889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/File_13/pseuds/File_13
Summary: Evanescence is a warrior known all over Minecraftia. Battles and fighting are her forte, and she knows her way around just about any weapon she lays hand on, though she does seem to have trouble thinking beyond food and battle plans. But after returning home from war to visit her best friend, Steve, things start getting a little weird. It's not every day that someone gets attacked by the Demon Ghost of Minecraftia, the Nether King. What's even weirder is when she has to team up with him to try and rescue her only friend from an evil she can't even see.What good can a spirited mortal and a depressed and fallen deity do against ancient evils?Well, they're about to find out.





	1. A Call from Home

Chapter 1

**_A Call From Home_ **

 

I looked at the envelope in my left hand with mild interest, sunlight covering half of the blank space. Spring was finally starting to take hold of the land; a dangerous time when only the most daring (or the most idiotic) farmers would begin to plant their seeds, more often than not praying that there would not be one last winter freeze. Today, however, had been very warm, and the sun shone brightly for the last few hours of the day, so I had opted to eat my meal outside the café rather than inside like normal.

The envelope I was talking about was made of thick parchment typical of any commoner in Minecraft, and I had received it this morning from a courier while I was paying for a room at the inn I had stayed at for the past few days. Cutting open the top of the envelope with a small diamond knife I usually kept strapped to my thigh, I pulled out the goods. It was a letter. I began to read it, biting my bottom lip. I knew this handwriting.

_ Dear Evan,  _

__ _ Long time, absolutely no see! I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about you recently in the village, usually about all of those insane heroic deeds and battles, but I really can’t imagine the person I know as savior of many villages and an inter-dimensional hero. How any times has it been that you’ve gone into the Nether now? 12? 3? 46? _

__ _ Anyway, to make this short, let’s just say I want you to come home and visit. It’s literally been a year and three months since you left, and the neighborhood’s been awfully quiet without you screaming at some random zombie you decided it was a good idea to fight in the middle of the night. If I need to convince you, then I’ve been mining and hunting a lot lately, and the animals are finally starting to come out of hiding again, and I think I’m getting really close to a diamond vein if you want to go mining. Hope to see you soon. _

__ _ Love, _

__ __ _ Steve _

Okay, now let me pause right here, since you’re obviously really confused. My name is Evanescence. Strangers call me hero. Acquaintances call me Eva. Steve? He’s always called me Evan. Up until about a year ago, I lived in a house a little upriver from a village, with Steve a little downriver from me, even though that wasn’t always the case.

I had lived most of my life on the run and… Well, alone. I had nobody to call friend, no place to call home, no money to my name, and nowhere to run. I mean that last part quite literally, because that’s how Steve found me. I think I was 15 or 16 years old when he found me, back up against a wall and surrounded by three Creepers. He had been hunting, so he had a bow on him and shot two of the mobs, but he didn’t quite reach the third in time.

The explosion had left me almost dead, and Steve injured. Even so, he took me to his home and helped me get my feet back under me. He taught me to build, to mine, and to fight even though he could have only been a couple years older than I was at the time. Well, since then I’ve repaid my debt (many times over, as I constantly tease him), and set out on my own. I’ve been a merchant, a sell-sword, an adventurer, a leader, and a warrior among other things. Steve would tell you that I was a strategical hot-head. But through all of these, I’ve always been Steve’s friend, and he mine. And, in all honesty, I have missed him a  _ lot _ in the past year…

The sun had finally set far enough that it passed the range of my table umbrella, and it ever so kindly decided to blind me at that moment. I stood up and pushed in my chair, a little clumsy since I couldn’t see much else than a great white blob, and set down two iron bits for my food. With that, I stumbled blindly over to my horse who was tethered nearby with Steve’s letter now crushed in my clenched fist.

I wasn’t mad! No, not in the slightest. It was just time for me to pay a visit home.


	2. Good to be Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Evanescence is a warrior known all over Minecraftia. Battles and fighting are her forte, and she knows her way around just about any weapon she lays hand on, though she does seem to have trouble thinking beyond food and battle plans. But after returning home from war to visit her best friend, Steve, things start getting a little weird. It's not every day that someone gets attacked by the Demon Ghost of Minecraftia, the Nether King. What's even weirder is when she has to team up with him to try and rescue her only friend from an evil she can't even see.
> 
> What good can a spirited mortal and a depressed and fallen deity do against ancient evils?
> 
> Well, they're about to find out.

Chapter 2  
Good To Be Home

Bailey and Kicker started getting really excited as we exited the village. Bother grey wolf and the black stallion knew this road very, very well, even though the last time we had crossed its green, leafy coolness had been other a year ago. It felt like an age ago. I chuckled at the thought after a moment. It had been an age ago! I had been 19 when I had set off on my adventures, and now I was 20. And it had only been about four or five years that I had lived in this place, but it was more of a home than anywhere else I had ever been.

Kicker’s mane lashed across my face as he shook his dark head, effectively jolting me back to reality. I was oddly enough grateful for the rude awakening. I didn’t like drifting off and thinking really deeply. It brought back way too many painful memories. Hey, what else were you supposed to do while begging for money in a dark, slimy alleyway?

Bailey barked- the booming, ragged arks typical of tame wolves- and tore her way down the path disappearing around a bend I knew quite well…

A sly smile spread across my lips. I quickly dismounted Kicker and ran into the trees. I could see an indistinct figure, bent double, but he couldn’t see me until I jumped out of the trees behind him and tackled him in a giant bear hug that knocked us both to the ground with me screaming, “STEVO!”

“Evan! Holy mother of Notch, you scared the crap out of me!” gasped Steve, eyes wide, but pulling me into a hug anyway. He hadn’t changed much in our time apart. He still had the same stormy grey eyes framed by his dark eyebrows and shaggy brown hair that would not stay out of his face and smelled like soap. He still had the same bright and crooked grin. His hands were calloused as ever. Heck, he was even still wearing the exact same teal t-shirt and blue jeans.

“Bet’cha weren’t expecting that now, were ya?” I laughed, pushing myself off of him so that he could sit up. He did so and proceeded to rub the back of his head, where he had hit a rock.

“Expecting what, the bear hug or the heart attack? Because I was not prepared for either,” he groaned, lowering his hand to his heart. “It’s still racing.”

“Just like the rest of you is gonna be tomorrow when we go mining,” I said with a devilish grin. Steve got flustered really easy sometimes, and I liked to use this to my advantage as often as possible since he was the stronger of us usually.

“Oh, is that what we’re gonna be doing?” he said, standing up, brushing his pants off and offering me his hand. I grabbed it and he lifted me easily off the ground. “I wasn’t aware that we were going to be at loggerheads already!”

“Wouldn’t be us hanging out if it wasn’t,” I pointed out with a grin, turning away. I feigned deafness at his next words.

“Right… Hanging out… Yeah.”

“Stevo I really hope you cooked up something tasty for dinner ‘cause I’m starving and I am so out of food at my place that it’s not even funny,” I said, hands behind my head and walking to his front door.

“Hope you like beef stew, ‘cause that’s what I’ve got in the pot right now,” he said with a smile of his own, giving me a mock bow into the house and adding, “After you, Lady Evanescence, leader of some odd army or another, adventurer extraordinaire, savior of-”

“Okay Steve that’s enough,” I chuckled, pushing past him and into the house, breathing in the warm combination of Steve’s house and beef stew. “It’s good to be home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, posting a few chapters. Hope you guys enjoy.


	3. Unwelcome Discoveries

Chapter 3

**“Unwelcome Discoveries”**

 

“Do you think we’re gonna need the diamond pick?” Steve asked behind me.

“A little late for that, isn’t it?” I said, rolling my eyes and continuing to mine. We had been in this cave system for an hour by now. “You should have thought of that when we were still at your house.”

“Oh, yeah,” chuckled Steve nervously. “Probably… Oh crap!”

I turned around, suddenly alarmed. “What? What is it? What happened?”

“Oh, nothing,” Steve replied, waving an unlit torch before placing it on the wall and lighting it. “I just forgot to grab food, too. I’ll have to go back up and grab some and-  _ Ow _ !”

That was Steve as I punched him, hard, in the arm. “Dang you Steve!” I said angrily, punching him again as he jumped away. “Why the heck did you scare me like that for no reason?”

“Well  _ sorr-y _ hon!” he laughed, grabbing my wrist with one hand and tickling my side with the other.

I may be a formidable warrior, and a fearless adventurer, but I am so ticklish that it is not even funny. Steve had discovered this several years ago, and it was a  _ very _ effective weapon to use against me… Unfortunately. So when Steve’s fingers danced feather-light across my sides and stomach, I doubled over immediately like I had been socked in the gut laughing and out of breath. He continued for a couple more seconds (of agony) and turned around, running deeper into the cave system and laughing his head off.

Following him wasn’t a problem. He kept lighting torches along the path he took. However, it is  _ really _ hard to follow someone when you’re suddenly dangling four meters above a lava lake.

Okay… That last part was a lie. There was a tiny island, only about three meters wide and two or three long, underneath my little death hole, but four meters was a long way to drop. I tried to figure out the best way to stick a landing or pull myself back up to the cave, but my sweaty hands made the decision for me.

I landed on my inventory bag, which was relatively empty, but now I was stranded in a lava lake. I took it in my stride anyway. I was pretty used to perilous situations. Anyway, I could just nerd-pole back up to the…

“Ohh-ho-ho-ho!” I laughed, standing up and leaning  _ way _ to close to the edge of my little island of safety. But diamonds- pale blue and glittering- were only a few meters away from me. I took me mere moments to reach them, and a few more to mine them. There were five in total. That was enough for me!

My bag now slightly heavier due to the weight of the gems, I began to build my way up to the top of the hole I had fallen through before. I almost fell off a couple times, but I managed it in the end, sweaty, covered in dust and soot, but very, very happy.

I wandered around the cave for a little while. Steve’s torches continued for a few more chunks before ending abruptly, and so I decided to go back.  _ Maybe he went back up to the surface for the food _ , I thought. Part of me welcomed the thought of a full stomach. All I had eaten today had been a bit of bread and some of Steve’s leftover stew for breakfast. But the rest of me was kind of annoyed that Steve hadn’t come looking for me when I disappeared. Whatever, I got my diamonds, and he didn’t. I decided to go back up to the surface.

We had gone pretty deep into the cavern system, into one of the unexplored arms. Steve and I had ruled this cave system since we had met. We even hit bedrock once a couple of years ago. That was where the seeds of my belief that the Nether was the core of Minecraftia were first planted. Some call me crazy, but hey, at least I’m creative.

But this was a new arm of the cave to us, only discovered a while ago by one of the coal miners Steve let use the cave. Today had been the farthest it had been explored.

I continued on for several more chunks in silence, my pickaxe over my shoulder, my sword by my side, and the gentle weight of my inventory bag at my other. A tiny bat flew squeaking in front of my face.

I walked into a huge cavern suddenly, with entrances to other arms and caverns and mineshafts all over, a hundred meters high. Miners like to call these sorts of caverns crossways, since they were sort of the intersections of a cave system. Most of the tunnels were covered by wooden planks and only accessible by doors. Others were dark as night, with mobs frequently wandering out of their depths. There weren’t any today though thank goodness. I was just about to turn out of my entrance and into another arm I knew would lead into another crossways in a few chunks, but a flash of color caught my eye.

The familiar blue green of Steve’s shirt was disappearing around the corner of one of the lit and unbarred arms. So, I decided, being me, to do the most logical thing possible.

I crept after him.

I followed him for several chunks, sneaking only half-heartedly because I liked following him until he realized I was there. But I got really bored with that pretty quick. So I decided just to let him know that I was there, out of the blue.

“Hey Steve,” I said, grinning and straightening up. He jumped, but I only took a few more steps before I faltered. Something felt wrong here. Steve should have turned around by now. Was he hiding something? “Steve? Are you alright?”

“I’m not Steve.”

He wasn’t. That wasn’t my friend’s voice. Steve’s voice was a warm tenor. This one was cold as the deepest, darkest depths of a guardian temple in the ocean. This man looked like Steve, dressed like him even, but this wasn’t him. “W-what?” I stuttered, confused. “Who are you then?” Oh, nice use of words Eva. A  _ very _ clever question. The man said nothing. He only turned halfway to see me over his shoulders.

And so I could see his cold, glowing white eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter. Also short. The newer ones are longer, I promise.


	4. A Little Game

Chapter 4

**“A Little Game”**

 

I was paralyzed. Herobrine walked the last few steps toward me until he was mere inches away. He was the same height Steve was, so he was really only a couple inches taller than I was, but in my terror, he seemed to tower above me. I tried to step back, to run away, to do  _ anything _ , but my legs were shaking like crazy, so I couldn’t move

I could face a dozen Wither skeletons and not lose my nerve. I could turn around in battle to see an armed zombie two inches away from me and not even flinch. But now, staring into the face of Herobrine, I am unashamed to say that I was the most scared I had ever been in my entire life, and probably ever will be.

“What, am I scary?” he asked in a soft, scathing voice, an evil grin crossing his face. His canines seemed oddly sharp, his white eyes shone bright, blocked only by the few strands of brown hair that fell into his face. But the strangest part about all of this was that I could smell  _ mint _ on his breath. “You like?” he asked suddenly. I was confused now as well as terrified. “I can listen in on your thought, dove. You like my breath?”

I was silent. He sighed. “Hmm, a silent type, huh? I seem to meet a lot of those, don’t I.” It wasn’t a question. He gave another long-suffering sigh before grinning again, putting his face right up to mine and grabbing my chin. “I know what we can do. Let’s play a little game together. How about… Tag? I’m ‘ _ It’ _ …”

My shaking legs seemed to have finally gotten a grip on themselves and wanted to work again. I took a jerky step backward, then another, and another before slipping and falling, right into Herobrine’s chest. He had teleported from in front of me to behind me. I scrabbled back up to my feet, heart racing at 1000 miles an hour.

“I’ll give you a thirty second head start,” he said, eyes never leaving me. “Starting now.  _ One _ …  _ Two _ …  _ Three _ …”

I didn’t stick around much longer. Never have I run faster in my entire life than just then. I didn’t even bother trying to unsheathe my sword. If it had been mobs, or even other Explorers, it would have been a different story. I could have fought them no problem. But the _Nether_ _King_? The Demon ghost of Minecraftian legend? I stood about as much chance as a fish against a Charged Creeper.

This is just a thing with me. When I’m in dangerous situations, even when I’m running for my life from a demon, I just seem to notice and remember the most random of things. Sometimes their just weird, like what I had for breakfast two weeks ago, and maybe they help like the location of a conveniently placed block of TNT. But this time, it was frightening. A song every child in Minecraftia has heard. A song that, when I was young, I would have nightmares about every time I heard it.

_ “A wicked curse, an evil spell, _

__ __ _ A demon from the depths of hell…” _

_ No, no, no! _ said my conscience as I jumped over a huge crack in the stone floor, but my stupid head just wouldn’t stop.

_ “Cold and silent, with glowing white eyes, _

__ __ _ It could be the devil in disguise…” _

The wind whistling in my ears sounded oddly similar to the haunting tune of the song I still remembered from my youth. I sprinted through the first crossways. It was a straight shot from here to the outside, but I could hear a cold, cruel laugh echoing from somewhere behind me.

_ “Listen to me, do as you’re told, _

__ __ _ Hide away all of your diamonds and gold. _

__ __ _ Or else he may strike, as sharp as a knife, _

__ __ _ You’ll fall to your knees and beg for your life.” _

 

__ __ _ “Cruel and ruthless and cunning is he, _

__ __ _ Who knows? His next victim could be you or me. _

__ __ _ So keep yourself safe, don’t cross the line, _

__ __ _ Or you shall face the Wrath of HEROBRINE…” _

I threw open the doors leading outside the caves and flung myself onto the grass, laughing uncontrollably in the afternoon sun. I went to wipe my face of sweat, and found myself crying like a small child. I stopped suddenly and looked behind me. The blackness of the cave seemed to be trying to swallow me, so I stood quickly and shut the doors as tight as possible. I didn’t see any white eyes, though… Had I been, like, hallucinating?

_ Hallucinations aren’t solid _ , said a tiny voice in the back of my head as I walked down the cobblestone path leading. My blood froze as I felt someone breathe into my ear, whispering, “No, they aren’t, are they little Dove?”

“ _ No _ !” I spun around and clocked Herobrine full in the face. He stumbled back and doubled over, stunned and clutching his jaw. I took this as the absolute perfect opportunity to run the other direction, toward my house. I almost made it too… Then Herobrine teleported right in front of me. I ran into him at full speed and was knocked to the ground, cracking the back of my head on the stone pathway. He wore an evil grin, laughing at my pathetic state. He lived for this sort of thing. I did notice with some satisfaction the bruise now beginning to bloom on his left jaw, and the trickle of dark red blood now dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

“Why are you running away, Dove?” he said in a soft voice as I scrambled away, unable to get onto my feet. And it didn’t help that he kept advancing. He  _ did _ stop however, when my sword point was an inch away from his throat. His smile never left his face.

“Don’t. You  _ dare _ . Come  _ any _ . Closer,” I said, trying to control my voice. My hand shook, which normally wouldn’t have been a problem, but it made my sword point wobble two or three inches in every which direction.

“Aww, but all I wanted to do was play with you, Dove. Are you afraid of me?”

He disappeared with an ominous laugh. I got to my feet and pointed my sword at different locations at random. My heart was pounding painfully in my chest. Bile was rising in my throat, and hysteria was beginning to take hold.

A knife flashed into existence out of nowhere, slinging down my arm and making me drop my sword. The knife was suddenly at my throat. Herobrine was behind my back with a fistful of my hair, pulling my head back and exposing my neck.

“Trust me Dove… You should be  _ very _ afraid…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, that was slightly longer I think. I dunno.
> 
> Poem was by the fabulous SupaSonicSiMCraft. Coz... I can't write poems QAQ


	5. Deestruction by Nightfall

Chapter 5

**_Destruction By Nightfall_ **

_Evanescence's POV_

    “Don’t struggle, that will just make the poison spread faster.” I could feel his lip brush the outer edge of my ear as he spoke softly into it. “My knife was coated with a very special type of paralyzing toxin. Not in any way deadly, but powerful enough to keep you from moving for quite a long time. Whatever I do now, you will have absolutely no power to resist.” I felt my heart begin to hammer, but it was louder than normal, and muffled. Was it the toxin? “I could _kill_ you with no problems at all, but that’s just not any fun now, is it? Killing you without destroying something precious to you is just boring.”

    My whole right arm, which had started out burning with pain from the knife cut, was now tingling with numbness, along with my hand and feet. My started to breathe a little faster, still pressed hard against the demon’s body as he held the knife to my throat. “Yes… It’s starting to get to you now, isn’t it Dove?”

    “Stop calling me ‘Dove’!” I burst out suddenly, moving a little too much so that the knife pressed a little harder into my skin. Whatever was going to happen to me, my fight or flight responses had been switched to ‘fight’. I would not be this man’s- this _demon's_ \- prey. I was shocked by his laugh. It sounded like the others on the surface, but something about it seemed… Off. Like I had startled him.

    “I will call you whatever I please, beautiful Dove, before I destroy and kill you.”

    The paralysis finally got me. My legs just gave out from under me, and Herobrine let go so that I could fall to the ground. He kneeled down and grabbed my face with one hand, forcefully turning it over to look in his direction. I was glad I could still glare daggers of fire and ice at him.

    “ _Tsk_ , poor, poor Dove. Were your wings finally broken? Can’t you move? I didn’t think so. Now,” he adopted a mock pondering air before continuing. “Now… What shall I do with you? You seem like a highly unorthodox type of person, so let’s do something very cliché, like…”

    He snapped his fingers and grinned at me with a sort of _ta_ \- _da_ air about him, like he had just performed a magic trick and expected applause from me. The smile fell almost comically from his face as I did nothing but continue to glare. “What? Can you not see? Well then...”

    He grabbed my face again and turned my head. I would have screamed and started crying if I wasn’t, like, paralyzed. My house was not as elaborate as Steve’s was; only a modest cobble and oak wood structure with two stories and large windows, but it was mine, and build by my own blood, sweat and tears. It was on fire. I could hear Bailey barking and yelping from the inside, and I prayed to Notch that she would have the common sense to run out and far away.

    I could hear Herobrine laughing behind me, a crazy, loud, unashamed sort of laugh. He stopped suddenly, the laughter replaced by something more like a growl, and the growl was more animal than it was human.

    “Herobrine! What did you do to her?” came a cry that I knew well. My heart leapt at the sound of Steve’s voice. While Steve was maybe a tiny bit better at sword fighting than I was, and therefore standing about as much of a chance as I did against Herobrine, he was there. He was friendly. It was a small comfort, but it was something.

    “Why, I have done nothing, dear brother. But your death would be a perfect way to destroy this poor girl, wouldn’t it?” _Brother?_

    “You liar! You have no humanity. No shame!” Steve’s last words came as a shout, followed almost immediately by a clash of swords almost directly above me. I couldn’t see anything. The fighting continued for a few more seconds before there was a shout of pain, and someone- Steve or Herobrine, I couldn’t tell which- tore through the forest in front of me, his doppelganger following him in close pursuit, running deeper and deeper until I could no longer see them.

    I was left lying there. Alone. My house was burning. I couldn’t do anything about it. I could barely even think. My head was foggy. I… I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t move. I laid there for hours. A cloud had decided that the forest needed a drink and poured for several minutes. I hardly registered the rain around me, but I did notice that my house had stopped burning through my disorientation.  Eventually, my foggy frame of mind wore off, and I could finally feel my fingers in the mud, and my toes in my wet boots. I tried wiggling them. It worked. It took a few minutes to actually regain relative control of my body again. I had a pounding headache, and I was very clumsy. Well, clumsier than usual.

    By now, it was late afternoon. I ran to my house and salvaged what I could, which was several stacks of wood, a few stacks of cobblestone, some food, torches, and my enchantment books and money. My house wasn’t going anywhere, but who knew had seen the smoke coming from the fire and would come running to see what would happen. Some people were scumbags, and stole from everyone, even if it were their own mother or a war hero like yours truly. Bailey was nowhere to be seen. The supplies I grabbed, along with what was already in my inventory satchel, would have to do. I wasn’t staying here. I had to get away from this place. Surely this would be the first place Herobrine would check if he, well, came back to finish me off. And I wasn’t about to lead Him to Steve’s house and risk him losing everything.

    Oh Notch. Steve. He hadn’t returned in all of the time I was lying there, unmoving. I would have seen him. Was he alright? Was he…?

    I had arrived in a clearing. I don’t know how I got there. I didn’t really care. The sun was only about an hour from setting, and I didn’t yet have a shelter. I had to work quick.

    The finished product was what I liked to call a “one day house”. It was a tiny shack, about six by five meters, with no windows, a single door, and just barely tall enough for me to stand without my head touching the ceiling. There was a crafting bench inside, and a furnace, but no bed. I would have to sleep on the ground, or on some wooden planks. The sun had fully set by now, and I had no sword. I didn’t like hiding (unless it was from that murderous demon), but with nothing to defend myself, I had to. It was shameful, almost. A warrior like me hiding from a few petty mobs? Looking back now, I was pretty full of myself.

    So, I lay down in the corner farthest from the door on the grass, my head resting on my arm and pounding from my headache. I watched a torch as the flame flickered. I was too scared and confused to cry just now, like the tears had been terrorized and now refused to come out, so, instead, I thought. Not about much. I was exhausted too. I thought about Steve, and whether he had escaped, and about my dog, and whether she was okay, and about that letter… _Maybe_ , I thought, closing my eyes and beginning to let exhaustion have its way with me, _maybe it would have been better if I had not come home to begin with…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nothing to say, really... :T


	6. Found You

Chapter 6

**_Found You_ **

_ POV of ??? _

 

__ The void…

I knew this place well. I had been here many times. And I did not like it. I never have. Not when I first heard of it from my father, not when I first discovered it here.

Its darkness seemed to envelope me, embrace me, suffocate me and steal the breath from my very lungs in its infinite blackness. Usually I enjoyed solitude, but this was just too much. And the pain… The pain was pure agony. A type of suffering that made one wonder what they had done to deserve it.

What had I done…? There was a noise coming from behind me, like song, but very faint. The sound of trees and wind and water followed. There was a soft voice, like an angel’s, and a scent like cinnamon, but there was nothing I could see but blackness though my eyes were wide open. Something touched my shoulder, and pain erupted all through my body. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t. Who would hear me? Not the light. I was too far in the Void. There was no way I could see the light.

_ The Void had me… _

 

***

_ Evanescence’s POV _

 

I looked for sheep in the forest the next day. I needed a bed, desperately. I sometimes slept out in the open when I was traveling the land in search of adventure, but last night had been the worst sleep of my life. In fact, it wasn’t even worthy of being called “sleep”, it had been so bad. I hoped that a bed would help cure that, but I needed to find some sheep. I had crafted a diamond sword with the diamonds that were in my inventory satchel. I was surprised that Herobrine hadn’t taken them, but hey, I wasn’t about to pretend that I understood the guy. There were three leftover, but I decided to keep them in a chest I crafted this morning.

The translucent blue blade sparkled in the early morning sun. The diamond swords I made always seemed to turn out more decorative and finely cut than those I would find in a market or blacksmith’s. Hundreds of thousands of tiny facets and faces seemed to wink and glitter at me when I moved it.

I also had a pair of shears on me, but I wasn’t planning to use those today, unfortunately for the sheep.

I skipped across a small river, my leather boots barely touching the shallow waters, and looked up only to scream, “Holy Notch!”

No, it wasn’t a whole herd of sheep, though that would have been extremely welcome. No, it was a young man. He was lying on his back, his brown hair ruffled blue jeans and turquoise shirt filthy dirty, with a huge slash across his chest covered in dried blood and several smaller wounds. I could see hardened muscles beneath the ripped and torn clothing. Notch, why the heck was I looking at him?

He seemed like he was in pain. He shivered violently in the warming forest air, and every few seconds, his fingers or eyelids would twitch. When I kneeled down and touched his shoulder, he jerked away with a pitiable cry of pain. Was he poisoned? He didn’t seem to realize that I was there. The foremost question in y find was whether it was Steve or not. If it was Steve, then I couldn’t just leave him here to die. What kind of horrible person would I be then, to just let my best friend die? But if it wasn’t Steve, if it was Him, then if I saved him, he would kill me the moment I woke up. I had about a one in three chance that nobody would die in any situation. I kind of liked those odds; they felt like they were in my favor. They were much better than the ones in some of my adventures. Still, the thought of helping Herobrine… It was repulsive. But if it was Steve, I would need to take that chance.

It has been said many times over, but I’ll say it again. Carrying the dead weight of a person, especially a person bigger than you are, is unimaginably difficult. After several minutes and only a few feet, I managed to figure out a way to hook the man’s arms over my shoulders and drag him behind me, hunched over and panting pretty soon. By the time I got to my shack, my spine felt like it had been fused together. So I dropped the body unceremoniously on the grass and began to work.

I took pride in being a relatively fast builder. I was certainly much better than the Testificates in the villages. And in about four or five hours, I was done, at least for now. My little shack was now about 200 square meters at this point, with a bedroom for myself, a kitchen, a sitting room, and a spare room I decided to turn into my  _ guest’s _ sleeping area. I still didn’t have a bed, and I would have to find even more sheep than before, or plan on using those shears instead of my sword. I had been looking forward to the sword… Dangit. Anyway, I needed mutton for some stew. I would just shear them first and kill them later. That would work. There were plenty of sheep in this world. The body went into the house on the spare room’s floor, and I went outside to try my luck again hunting for sheep.

My fingers were crossed that I would find enough before nightfall, and that my shack would still be there when I got back tonight.

 

**_}That Night{_ **

_ Herobrine’s POV _

 

__ I was lying on something soft. Very, very soft. The darkness wasn’t gone, but it felt different. Safe. Like the inside of my own head. The Void no longer surrounded me with its crushing emptiness, replaced by a familiar, scratchy feeling on my arms and bare feet. It felt like… Like wool. Wool sheets. Was I on a bed? My head hurt still. I couldn’t think straight. My eyes opened, slowly, like they hadn’t been used in a very long time. How was that possible? I used them when I was in that place. I shuddered. I didn’t want to think of there.

I was lying in semi-darkness, on a bed. There was light coming in through a window and an open door to my left. I was lying in the far end of a room, facing a wall. Every wound I had, including the gash that Steve had left on my chest where most of the poison that he used was, was wrapped in clean bandaged. I wasn’t exactly sure how I got here, or where  _ here _ even was. I’m not really sure I want to know, actually. Last I knew I was floating around in the one thing that could… Well, in infinite nothingness. I sat up and swung my legs out from under the bed sheets. I froze at a sudden movement by the door. I wasn’t alone in the room.

A girl, barely a woman, sat in a chair just in the shadows. Her head drooped onto her chest, and her arms were folded. A diamond sword sat across her lap. She seemed oddly familiar, but I only recognized her when her head tipped back. It was that Evanescence girl I had chased before Steve had caught me. Her long honey colored hair was tied back, and her eyelids flickered. Her chest rose and fell slowly, and her face seemed relaxed. She was fast asleep. I thought about killing her there and then, but I’m not entirely inhuman. Just mostly. But this girl had saved me, I guess. Why would she do that for me, after I had almost killed her?

No. Not for me. For  _ Steve _ . She didn’t know the difference between my brother and I. Whatever. I was cured, and I had to get out of here. I tried to take a step forward, and promptly went crashing to the ground. Maybe I  _ wasn’t _ completely cured then. My legs wouldn’t support me. How long did it take for Steve’s toxin to wear off, huh? I simply hoped that my fall hadn’t woken up that girl, but of course it did. She woke with a start, grabbing her sword and waving it around in alarm before seeing me sprawled on the floor. That was embarrassing, but I thought I saw something die in her eyes when she caught sight of my own glowing ones.

“Bet you’re loving this, aren’t you Dove,” I attempted to growl, but that’s kind of difficult when you can’t even stand. “Being the one with the power? Standing over your victim?”

“Stop calling me ‘Dove’,” said the girl, her expression hardening. There was not a trace of fear in her eyes. I didn’t blame her, in the state that I was in, but it still annoyed me. “And as for the victim part, I wasn’t planning on killing you unless you were about to kill me.”

“Oh, trust me girl, I would if I could,” I grumbled under my breath, still trying to get to my feet. The best I could do was get off of my face and sit up. She said nothing. “aren’t you going to do something?”

“What would I do? I’m not helping you back into bed. It was difficult enough the first time, and then I was half hoping that you were Steve.”

“I’m leaving, you idiot, not getting back into a bed!”

“I doubt that.”

Unfortunately, she was right. The farthest I could struggle was back to that bed. She had sat back down with her sword now leaning up against the wall, watching with piercing hazel eyes as I fought to pull myself up. When I finally managed to get back onto the bed and leaned up against the wall, she walked out of the room. To my confusion, she came back in a couple minutes later and set a bowl of stew and loaf of bread on the table next to me and threw another blanket at my face before walking out again.

People are so confusing.


	7. Roommate Review

_ Chapter 7 _

**Roommate Review**

 

Herobrine lived in my house now. I was in a tough enough bind as it was. I had no resources except for those that I could scavenge from the ruins of my old house, very little money, and now I had a murderous, bed-ridden phantom as a roommate. Yes I think that I am justified in saying that my life sucked. On top of that, I had no clue on where Steve was, or if he was even alive. Herobrine _said_ that he didn’t kill him, but that wasn’t much reassurance.

Actually, let’s talk about that little… _Gah_ , bad word. Murdering little... Yeah.  


I guess I kind of forgave him for terrorizing me, almost killing me, and destroying just about everything precious to me. I don’t like holding grudges. It’s too much energy used for no reason, and I had much better uses for my energy than to constantly fume about something that happened and was now in the past. But let’s just say that Herobrine was not a happy camper, nor a pleasant house guest. He was evil first of all - I mean, he’s Herobrine. And on top of that, he was kind of rude, and he seemed to have a bottomless pit for a stomach. At least he hadn’t said anything about my cooking. While I’m not five stars, I’m still not _bad_ for a chef. I had worked as a food vendor for a while, and guess it rubbed off.

So anyway, I didn’t let the demon bother me that much. His words didn’t hurt me, and he couldn’t even stand for the first couple of days. It was about three days later that we started trying to get him to walk again. Trust me; I wanted him out of my house as fast as possible.

I gotta admit though… There’s something nice about knowing you’re not alone. I didn’t even have Bailey to keep me company, and I’ve always had her with me, and Kicker too, but he was still at Steve’s house. Herobrine was, horribly enough, that sort of comfort. He was someone I could talk to and, well, insult, to be honest. He served it right back though, but even he seemed to enjoy these little burn sessions. Of course, what did I know?

“And today’s special is pork-chops, steamed carrots, and cooked potatoes with apple cider,” I said one evening, setting the plate down on the table in front of him. As soon as his legs could support him, I forced him to eat at the table, which seemed to bother him a lot, urging me even more to do it. Spite, you know? He stared at the meat and vegetables, then at me. I had noticed a while back that his eyes weren’t really white. They were blue, but they glowed so much and the blue was so, so pale, usually the blue was lost in the rest of his eye.

“What about you?” he asked. I was kind of surprised. Was the Nether King being considerate?

“Uh… The same thing? I eat dinner with you, remember?”

“Huh. Must have slipped my mind. Being around people like you makes me forget.” I didn’t know how to take that, so I just sat down at the head of the table with my own food in an awkward silence. This didn’t bother Herobrine. He just kept shoveling his food in. But when I helped him limp to his room and into bed, I could have sworn I heard him whisper “ _ thank you _ ” into my ear before I stood back up. Jeeze, was this guy evil or not? Someone  _ please _ just tell me if this man was planning to kill me of if he was genuinely being sincere.

    So...  I just sat up in my bed, leaning against the wall and staring into one of the upper corners. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. And I didn’t like it. I _hate_ thinking. Again, it brings back too many bad memories, and I don’t really see myself as a kind of insightful, reflective person. I was the “ _ you look at me funny too long and I’ll stab you _ ” person. That’s how I survived so long, and while it may not be the best way to live, at least I don’t get stared at in public. I didn’t really understand how Steve put up with me. If I  _ weren’t _ me, I would have killed me by now… If that made  _ any _ sense at all.

I was thinking about Steve. As a kid, I didn’t really have any friends. I lived alone, and I almost lost sight of who I was. Then I met Steve, and he helped me get along with life, working side by side with it rather than fighting it. Yes, my life is based primarily on fighting, but then I’m fighting people. They’re on the same plane of existence as I was, while life was just so much bigger than anything I could imagine. If you can’t beat them, join them, I guess. Especially if they aren’t really your enemy.

“Oh Steve,” I breathed before lying down and closing my eyes. It was painful to think of what was happening to him, or whether he was okay to begin with. “Steve… Where are you, man? Why are you hiding? You would know what to do…”

Herobrine was gone the next morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy, I guess?


	8. Reunion

****

Chapter 8

**_Reunion_ **

_ Steve’s POV _

I stepped over the tiny river and lowered myself into a crouch on the other side to examine a footstep left in the mud. Well, it was several footsteps, from the same person it looked like, and two long, deep furrows following them, like wagon tracks, but that didn’t make much sense since there were no trails anywhere nearby, and the furrows were far too close together. I am so confused now. I don’t even really know how long I’ve been passed out. The last thing I remember was falling face-first and passing out in a puddle of mud in the middle of the forest. I think it had been raining. Again, I wasn’t sure. Herobrine was somewhere in there, and Evan. I remember that.

Oh yeah. Evan was about to be killed by Herobrine. Or she  _ had _ been about to be killed. I don’t think she was anymore. Herobrine was wounded last time I saw him. I had cut him, and that poison was potent. It was from dad, after all. I didn’t escape unscathed though. I was covered in bruises and half-healed slashes from Hero’s sword. I definitely didn’t feel good, but I had only just woken up this morning. I probably would have felt worse earlier. Still wasn’t sure about that time. Whatever. I just wanted to find these tracks. I lived in these forests, and knew them like the back of my hand, but there tracks were unfamiliar. So I followed them.

They didn’t go too far. Sometimes they would look scuffed and weird, then continue on. They must be a few days old, too. The dirt was dry, and there were droppings and puddles of water in some of the indentations. They stopped all of the sudden in a grassy clearing, and I looked up to see a very tiny house, a shack really. It was well lit, there were no cobwebs, and besides, I had never seen the thing before. Someone had, basically, just moved into the neighborhood. If I had to guess, it was about three hundred chunks from Evan’s house, and about four hundred from mine. That wasn’t that far away, only about an hour’s walk. I needed to meet this newcomer.

I walked up to the door and knocked three times. I heard someone say something indistinct, and the door swung open, making me jump at its suddenness.

“There you are, you ungrateful bastard. Why would you-”

Evan stopped talking and just gaped at me, then started laughing before barreling into me in a hug, screaming at the top of her lungs. “Steve! Oh my gosh! Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy mother of freaking Notch, you’re alright!”

“Evan I can’t breathe!”

“I don’t freakin’ care!”

“Evan! Can’t breathe!” She seemed to believe me that time. At least she loosened her death hug a tiny, tiny bit.

“Oh my Notch Steve,” she said, her voice muffled as she buried her face in my shirt. Her back was shaking and I thought that she had seriously burst into tears. But she hadn’t, she was just laughing.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking down at her as she pulled my by a single warm hand into the little house. “You’re acting like I’ve been missing for years!”

“Well…” She sat me down at the small wooden table and shoved a bowl of mushroom stew in front of me before sitting herself down. “You definitely have been missing for about a week, I’ll tell you that.”

I nodded, sipping the soup. I can’t say that I was really surprised I had been out for a week. That was relatively normal. “And why are you here? I know your house burned down, but why didn’t you go to mine? That would’ve been fine.”

“Well, I thought about it, but I was worried that Herobrine would find me again there.”

“Huh. Well he’s not going to be bothering you anymore. I made sure of that.”

“Really? He’s been bothering me for a bit.”

“Well don’t let him. He’s gone, and he’s not coming back.”

“Why? Where’d he go?”

What? Was something wrong with Evan? That wasn’t like her to ask that kind of question, much less with an expression of mingled concern and annoyance. “What do you mean?”

“I mean do you know where he went?”

“As… Far as I know he’s still in the forest.” I answered slowly.

“Still? Is that where he’s been all day?” Evan jumped up with a very angry appearance. Her hazel eyes burned with a furious fire. But her statement was off. Weird.

“Hold up,” I said, touching her hand to get her to sit back down. “What have you been doing in the time I’ve been out?”

“I-”

“She’s been taking care of  _ me _ ,” said another voice from the front door. I spun around in my seat and faced my brother. His eyes glowed with that same unnatural force, his expression set and faintly annoyed.

“Herobrine!” Evan stood up and was at the door in an instant. She punched Herobrine in the chest, making him take a step back only to stumble forward again as she grabbed the front of his shirt and shaking him violently. “You ungrateful little bastard! You don’t just leave without saying ‘bye!  _ And _ you shouldn’t even leave when you can’t even  _ walk _ you idiot!”

“I’m can walk fine, girl,” he growled at her before pulling her hands off of him with both of his own and turning to look at me. “I sensed that my dear brother had awoken, and decided that he needed a welcome back party.”

I stood up, my chair knocked to the ground with the suddenness of the movement. Anger coursed through my mind. I wasn’t usually one to get angry easily. I didn’t like fighting. But Herobrine was a special case.

“And here I was thinking that I was going to be the one who threw the welcome party,” I snarled, starting forward and adding, “And throwing the recipient off a cliff.”

Herobrine was coming at me, his eyes smoldering. “Why you-  _ Ow _ !”

“No!” There was a sudden pain in my stomach, and I doubled over, wheezing. Herobrine had also keeled over, coughing and spluttering. Evan had punched us both. “No! No, no,  _ no _ ! Absolutely not! I am so mad at the  _ both _ of you right now, I can’t even  _ punch _ you guys right!”

“Evan-”

“No, Steve! I’m not going to let you two pummel each other to death right now! I am so sick of you two going at each other’s throats!” She looked livid, her dark blonde hair falling out of its ponytail.

“But Evan!”

“I said  _ no _ !”

“Dove, I-”

“Don’t even get me started on you, Brine!” she turned her furious face to Herobrine, who looked stunned. “I am so sick of you and your constant muttering in your sleep about how you’re going to kill Steve, and your stupid pastime of killing innocent people!  _ Both _ of you are sleeping here, and if you have to have a stupid freaking fight to the death, you can do it in the morning, and  _ out of the house _ !”

“What?”

“Go to your room, Herobrine!” To my astonishment, after a few more moments under Evan’s gaze, Herobrine slowly lowered his fists and slunk out into a small room, slamming the door behind him.

“Evanescence, I-” I started out, but Evan’s expression was simply terrifying. I don’t think I’d ever seen her so angry.

** “You. On the couch.” she said, pointing at the sofa. “I better not hear a single sound in this house, or the both of you are going to wish I had never come back home. I’m just as mad at _you_ as Herobrine, Steve.” I had no choice really but to obey as she slumped into her own room and shut the door softly behind her. **

 

**      That was a very restless night. **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes.
> 
> also, thank you to whoever left a kudos!!! LOVE YOU FOREVER, CHILDE!!! *le sob*


	9. The Price of Victory

Chapter 9

**_The Price of Victory_ **

_Evanescence’s POV_

 

    I woke up with a gnawing feeling in my stomach. I thought it was hunger, but it was almost more like nausea, and sickness. Why was it there? Did I eat something funny last night for dinner? Was it that stupid mushroom stew? I thought I had picked all of the right mushrooms. I double and _triple_ checked, even! Was Herobrine feeling the same thing?

    Wait… _Herobrine_ didn’t eat the stew. Oh _yeah_. Now I remembered. That’s why my stomach was doing flip-flops; today was the day that my best friend might destroy or be destroyed by a ghost. Well, that didn’t really make me feel any better. I felt the awful queasy sensation rise. Was I seriously about to get sick from nerves? No! I wasn’t even the one fighting! I sat up and gagged, swallowing the nausea and taking deep breaths. My hands were shaking. I looked down at them.

    They were reasonably clean, maybe a little rough, with normal length and shaped fingers, and covered as always in old scars, new cuts, and hard calluses. Nope, I didn’t have ladylike hands, and I was fine with that. They were a part of me, and I was proud of the tale they told. I would often be invited to royal courts or the houses of nobles, and the ladies there all had prim, perfect hands and fingers. They had no story. All they did was sit in their Prismarine towers and roam their grand Quartz halls, preening themselves and worrying about stupid things like what they ate. There were a couple noble women that I liked because they actually were noble. But I usually got off much better with the servants. I admired them. And when I saw their hands, they told me stories of hardship and trial, but they survived.   

    That’s why I never went to an herbalist’s or an apothecary to treat my wounds and remove all trace of them. I wore my scars like medals. They told people that I wasn’t afraid to get hurt for what I believed, that I was diligent, and that I was a person with a history. I looked at a scar in the palm of my left hand. It stretched from one side of my hand to the other. This particular wound had been from a sword fight I had received in a fight at a local tavern.

    It had been the first time Steve had brought me to the village about nine miles from his house. It had been an amazing day. He brought me to see traveling entertainers and merchants. It was the first time I had ever seen so many foreign people. But afterward, Steve got into some trouble with a big man, one of the travelers, actually, at the tavern, the Enchanted Tables, after having maybe one too many drinks. Steve got drunk so easy; he chose not to have alcohol really. But that was a strange time. The big man and some of his buddies brought Steve outside and were beating him to a pulp when I intervened. Looking back now, it was incredibly idiotic of me to fight them then. I was such a horrible fighter then. I was thrown against a wall, and the men cut my hand, telling me that they would kill Steve with me watching, and then kill me. They didn’t get much farther after that, because the big guy got a sword in the arm real quick. Steve was alright after a couple days, but this scar never healed completely.

    It bothered me at first. For several years it bothered me, actually. But in my year’s journey, I learned to appreciate it, and not just because it gave me a story to tell fellow soldiers around a campfire. It reminded me of home, and that victory would always come at a price, no matter how small. And sometimes, the victory wasn’t worth the price.

    My face fell into my hands. _Victory at a price, huh?_ I would have thought that Steve, who was one of the most level-headed, down to earth, honest to Notch people I knew, would know this small bit of knowledge. It may have been a lesson that I learned by myself, but Steve was older than I was, and had definitely seen a lot in his life. Was risking his life really worth Herobrine? And Herobrine… He was a jerk, and a psycho, and a murderer, but over the week or so I had been with him, he didn’t really seem like he was in control of himself, and I felt kind of sorry for the brute. Maybe that was why I dealt with him. But as far as anyone else knew, Herobrine was as old as the world. Wouldn’t he know for sure about the price of success?

    _I don’t want either of them to die_ , I thought, still not raising my head. Neither of them…

    “Knock knock,” came a voice from the door. When I wasn’t running for my life from him, Herobrine sounded almost exactly like Steve, so I had to look up to see who it was.

    “Go away, psycho,” I groaned, looking away from Herobrine’s blue eyes. He ignored me and leaned against the doorway.

    “You say ‘psycho’ like that’s a bad thing,” he said in a pouty voice. I glared at him.

    “I said _get out_ , Brine.”

    Herobrine raised his hands up to his chest in mock fright. “Woah, Dove, I wasn’t going to do anything. Steve just told me to get you so that we could talk and eat whatever slop he fixed for breakfast.”

    “ _Get_ _out_ ,” I said, almost on the verge of shouting and standing up. It would have been more effective if my stomach hadn’t decided to growl at that moment. Herobrine looked momentarily, genuinely confused.

    “Was that you?” he asked. I said nothing, but my face was hot. Dang. He walked into my room.

    “ _Brine_ , I _said_ -” My sentence was never finished. Herobrine grabbed my face with one hand, though much gentler than he had when he had tried to kill me. His face was way too close. I could see freckles on his nose and cheeks, and the blue of his eyes was more pronounced than ever. I noticed his breath smelled like mint still. His lips were slightly parted, and he suddenly pulled away, not looking at me.

    “Hurry and get to the dining room,” he said quietly, still not looking at me. He turned away and left my room. I sank to the floor, so utterly confused. What had just happened? How did it happen? And why… _Why was my heart still racing?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *shrug* not much to say :P
> 
> Briney boy don't wanna kill somebody??? Whaaaaat?
> 
> Also, go read my Eddsworld story. Go binge all of Eddsworld. Become obsessed, as I have. NOW GOOOO


	10. First Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY CRAP I AM SO SORRY!!! I am SO behind on updating this thing on here! I'm actually on chapter 15 XD Lemme fix that

Chapter 10

**First Encounter  
  
** _Evanescence's POV **  
**_

* * *

 

“Are you okay, Evan?” Steve asked me when I walked out. He looked slightly surprised and afraid. I glanced down and saw my fists were clenched tightly together, so that the knuckles were white. I hastily relaxed them, throwing on a most likely unconvincing smile. I still felt sick to my stomach.

“Yeah, I’m fine, Steve,” I said heartily, practically throwing myself in the seat farthest away from Herobrine, who was still looking anywhere but at me. Steve shot me an appraising look. 

“Ohh… Kay then, if you say so,” he said at last, turning back to his food. I guess it was just Herobrine’s typical inner jerk inside of him, because Steve’s food was definitely not slop. It was eggs. But the atmosphere was tense, and nobody spoke. I pretended not to see, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed little things, like how Steve was sitting much stiffer than usual and not eating his food, or how curls of grey smoke were rising from Herobrine’s clenched fists.

“Okay!” I shouted suddenly, slamming my hands flat on the table so that the plates rattled and the two men jumped. I’d had enough. “Enough of this stupid contention! What in Notch’s name is wrong with the both of you?”

“Oh, nothing much, just the fact that Herobrine is plotting to  _ kill _ you!” said Steve, suddenly glaring daggers at Herobrine, whose own eyes began to glow.

“I wouldn’t kill her, dear brother. I’m not  _ that _ awful,” growled the Nether King.

“Prove it then you monster!”

“It’s not my fault you’re jealous that I have mastered my powers!”

“More like your powers have mastered you!”

“Why, you-!” That seemed to be a soft topic with Herobrine. He jumped out of his seat, his hands engulfed in flames. Steve jumped up too, ready to fight. I grabbed my glass of water and threw the contents into Herobrine’s face. He spluttered and gasped, his flames extinguished. Unfortunately for the both of them, my fury wasn’t quite as snuffed out as Herobrine’s fire.

“You two are worse than two dogs!” I shouted through Herobrine’s coughs. Steve looked at me with wide eyes. “If you gotta pulverize each other, go ahead, but  _ not inside the house _ ! Get out!”

I grasped the knife that was at my thigh and threw it so it hit the wall above Steve’s shoulder, missing his face by inches. He jumped with a shout. I didn’t care. I get kind of violent when I’m angry, and I can’t really control it. I would probably regret losing my temper later, but I wasn’t in the thinking kind of state of mind. Herobrine looked at me with a furious expression of his own, and I threw my other knife at him, leaving a shallow cut on the side of his cheek before embedding itself in the door a few meters away.

“Out! Get out! Out of this house! Don’t come back in until you stop your Notch dang fighting!” I screamed, grabbing a hunting knife from under the table where I hid it and waving it at the two men, who scrambled away, practically pushing to get to the door. I threw the knife off to the side with a groan after a moment and walked to the sitting area, sitting down and covering my face with my hands, regretting what I did already. I sat there for maybe a couple minutes, lamenting and upset, before I heard raised voices outside and walked to the front window. Steve and Herobrine were standing face to face in front of my house. In fact, they were almost touching faces, and screaming at each other at the tops of their lungs, but I couldn’t understand them. I watched for only a few seconds before Herobrine threw a punch at Steve, who stumbled away. He swiped Herobrine’s legs out from under him after falling, and both men were suddenly brawling on the ground.

I made up my mind. I jumped over the side of my chair, snatched my diamond sword off of the wall where it was hanging, and slammed into the door, fumbling with the lock to open it. I wasn’t about to let either of them die. One of them was too precious to me, and I had grown to kind of like the other one.

I didn’t like the sight that met me. Herobrine was on his feet again, and Steve was trying to roll away from him. He kicked Steve in the gut, causing him to curl up into a little ball, wheezing. Herobrine’s hands were full of orange flames, his face scratched and bleeding. Steve held a knife tightly in his hand, probably the one that I had thrown at him a few minutes ago, and had soot on his face and arms. There was a shiny red burn along his left arm.

“Get off of him, Brine!” I shouted, waving my sword at Herobrine. He turned and looked slowly at me, and I froze. Oh crap, not this again. He didn’t even seem to recognize me, and his eyes were glowing so harshly that they appeared entirely white. He slowly looked me up and down with a weird expression on his face, and turned back to Steve with a sneer.

“Maybe I’ll kill her before I’ll kill you, brother, eh?” he said, lifting his hand. Steve rose into the air, clutching his throat. It was like he was being lifted by his neck. “But you’re already here, aren’t you?”

“Herobrine!” I lunged forward and grabbed Herobrine’s hand and Steve’s arm.

I felt something drain out of me, rushing out of my soul. I felt suddenly dizzy. The ground opened up under us, infinite blackness below. We fell into it. I was so confused, so, so confused… And so tired… Maybe if I just let go of the other two and closed my eyes. The crushing weight of the darkness suddenly came at me. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to look up. I couldn’t. Someone’s hand clenched mine, so tight that it was painful.  I felt something pop. But my other hand was so weak… 

Why  _ not just let him go? Let him go and close your eyes… Yes… Let him go… Just let go… _

I let go and closed my eyes. The weight of the darkness seemed to let go of me, too. Now it was just something gently holding me, wrapped around me. What was it?

I opened my eyes. Sunlight filled my vision. Funny. I had been still expecting darkness…  But there was my house, only a few meters away, bright and simple and surrounded by bushes and grass. Had that pit of oblivion been a dream? A hallucination?

“Hallucinations don’t save you from the Void, Dove,” came a frail, quiet voice from above me. The remaining pressure from round me disappeared as Herobrine let go of me. I looked up at his face in shock. All the color was gone from his cheeks, and he stared with wide and unblinking eyes at the spot where the hole had opened up. He looked terrified, that terrified me. I moved backward away from him and looked around frantically. Something was missing. Some _ one  _ was missing.

“H-herobrine?” He didn’t turn away from the place he was looking. I was afraid of what he was going to say. “H-herobrine? Where’s St-steve?”

No answer.

“He… He didn’t… He isn’t… Where did he go? Is he still…?” His expression told me exactly what I didn’t want to hear.

“The Void… The Void took him,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHAHAHAHAHA I AM SO SORRY. These chapters are so old and got written so long ago, I'm kind of ashamed of them now. (I think) I've progressed much more as a writer by now, so maybe I'll go back and fix a few things. again, sorry!


	11. The Decision

Chapter 11

**_The Decision_ **

_ Herobrine’s POV _

* * *

 

I watched as she sobbed, on her hands and knees and shaking, in that spot for hours. She could scream. I couldn’t. I may have disliked my brother, but I didn’t hate him. I could never wish something as terrible as this upon anyone. I knew what the Void was too well. Way, way too well. I knew its crushing darkness, the overwhelming sense of evil it exuded. It was like being at the bottom of a dark ocean. You couldn’t hear, or see, or do anything to save yourself. Yes, I knew the Void. What I didn’t know was if anyone other than me could survive it.

I had to move. To get away from this place. Run. Run away.

Run? Where to? I didn’t have anywhere to run to, did I? And besides, I couldn’t leave this girl behind. Could I? I could, but should I guess was the question. I was human, or at least, I had been at one point. I wasn’t sure what I was now. It’s been way too long. I couldn’t remember.

I don’t even remember how long we were there. All I knew was that it was suddenly nightfall, and the girl wasn’t moving. She wasn’t crying. She just sat there, her pale white face stained with grass, dirt, and tears. Her hazel eyes were blank and unseeing. I had regained myself, slightly, so I walked over to her and knelt down. She turned slowly to look at me, saying nothing. She wasn’t about to get up, but it was too dark to leave her outside.

I lifted her up in my arms. She didn’t fight, or try to steady herself. She just let me pick her up, her eyes still blind to her surroundings. She was relatively light for a warrior, but I was… Me, so that might have had something to do with that. I carried her into her house and to her room, setting her on her bed. I wondered how she must have felt when it had been me being set onto a bed. Probably relieved that she no longer had to carry me. It was astounding that she had even managed to get me into a bed. At least I could carry her.

Tears were still streaming down her face as I covered her with the blanket and brushed a stray hair out of her face. Was something wrong with me? Was something wrong with her? She never ran away from me after I tried to kill her. She didn’t scream. She only treated me like a person. It was like she wasn’t afraid of me. That couldn’t be right. Everyone was terrified of the demon ghost of the Nether. I thought everyone was, besides Steve. Steve, who might be dead now. I didn’t know. I just didn’t know. I turned away from the girl and walked out of her room before stopping at the sound of her faint voice.

“Is he alive? Do you know?”

I didn’t answer for a moment. “No… I don’t know.”

“Then there’s hope.” I turned around. She had sat up, now looking at me, her expression determined. “Herobrine, help me save Steve.”

“What?”

“You said you didn’t know whether Steve was dead or alive. Let’s save him.”

“You don’t understand what the Void is, do you?”

“No, but you do. I know you do, don’t you?”

This girl was kind of frightening. She swung her legs out from under the blanket and touched her feet to the floor, walking over to me. “You do know, Herobrine. Maybe even more than you wished you did.”

I had to hand it to her, she had a point. I stared into her glittering eyes. “Yes, I do. But only so much. I used to study the Void before…” I stopped. Too much. Too much of my past. I couldn’t let her know. I did have a reputation to uphold as Herobrine. “Whatever. The Void is nothingness. Nothing without immense power or will can survive it. You only made it out because I saved you.”

Her face hardened. “Are you calling me weak? After I saved your life even after you tried killing me? After I took care of you even after I knew that you weren’t Steve? After I’m still standing here and talking to you rather than hiding and cowering like you are right now from the Void?”

“It’s not- I-” I sputtered. How can a human go from being completely apathetic to having me at a loss for words so quickly? It was infuriating. And embarrassing, to be honest. She was right in my face all the sudden.

“What are you hiding from? Are you a coward? The Nether King? Running? I know you wanted to earlier. I felt it. You can’t hide it. And what made you stay? Guilt? Or were you just too scared to move?” she snarled.

“Shut up! You don’t understand what you’re talking about!” I shouted, grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her up to my face so that her feet left the ground. I was shocked to see the resolute grin on her face. I let her go, but she didn’t step away from me. Either she was brave or she was stupid, and I opted for the latter since I usually felt slightly more patient with stupid people. 

“I know I’m human, Herobrine,” she said quietly, her eyes burning with determination. “I know I don’t know everything. I also know that only you can help me find Steve. No matter your past, I don’t think you’re an inherently evil person. And even if you don’t see m the same way, I want to believe you’re my friend. I feel like you want a friend, too. I want to be that person, so please… Just help me…”

Her last words sounded so despondent and desperate I couldn’t help but feel my stone heart twinge a little bit. I hated myself- despised myself- for even thinking about it or acknowledging it, but… Her thoughts weren’t completely off. They had a ring of truth. I wasn’t about to tell this puny human that she might be right, but still… Being a ghost was hard. They’re invisible to the world. Discarded. Ignored. Nobody knew me more than being a murderer, and even that… They didn’t know. I wouldn’t let anyone ever know.

“I’m not guaranteeing anything, girl,” I said, not looking at her. Her expression was infuriatingly excited and smug. “But I’ll go with you. Only out of boredom, mind you. Let’s see how far a human like you can get into the Void before succumbing.”

“Well then,” she said. Her voice had changed tone again and I looked at her face. It was slightly… Sinister. And yet resolute. The torchlight made her features seem inhuman, and her eyes stood out bright white. She looked more like a demon than anything. “Then let’s do this.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NEWER CHAPTERS ARE BETTER, I PROMISE XD I'MA FIX THINGS!!


	12. Not So Pleasant

Chapter 12

**_Not So Pleasant_ **

_ Evanescence’s POV _

* * *

 

My heartbeat was way too fast for a quick trip into the village. I’ve lived here by Smelting for years, and never have I ever felt so jumpy and nervous approaching its gates and short stone walls. Of course, never have I ever brought a certain guy named Herobrine either. He was sauntering behind me, completely at his ease with a funny gleam in his eyes.

“Promise me again that you won’t kill anyone or use your powers, Brine,” I said, glancing at him over my shoulder.

“Whatever,” he shrugged.

“Brine this isn’t a ‘whatever’ sort of thing,” I turned around and grabbed the front of his shirt. He looked bored as I shook him. “Say you won’t do it!”

“Fine, I won’t kill anyone.”

“Or use your powers.”

“Or use my powers,” he amended, looking at me with that weary expression. I wanted to throttle him, but his glowing eyes dulled until they looked like relatively normal human eyes. Except that… He didn’t have pupils. Where there should have been were simply darker blue spots. That might be an issue.

“What are you looking at?” he asked, making me jump. His face was now mildly annoyed, and I could feel the color rising in my cheeks. “Yeah, I’m not human. Just realizing this, Dove?”

“Stop calling me that, Brine,” I rolled my eyes and turned away to continue down into Smelting. “Just remember that we’re here for provisions and gear. Nothing more.”

“Chill out, Dove. I’ve been on enough quests to know what I’m doing.”

“If I’m ‘ _ Dove’ _ then you’re ‘ _ Brian’ _ . Can’t let people know that you’re a legendary murderer can we?”

“Fine, Dove.”

I shook my head. There was just nothing to do about his ego, so it was better to just drop it. The Testificate who guarded the gates was dozing when we reached him, and we crept by with little noise so we didn’t wake him; the less people who saw Herobrine, the better. I don’t even know how he managed to convince me to go. Oh wait. He didn’t, he just decided not to listen to me and tag along.  _ Yeah _ … That’s what happened. I gave a tiny sigh and turned down the main street. Herobrine’s footsteps stopped from behind me.

“ _ ’Brian’ _ ?”

He was standing there with wide eyes, frozen. I couldn’t tell what was wrong with him. He looked like something had scared him. “’Brian’...?” I asked tentatively, touching his wrist. He jumped and looked at me before shaking his head and walking ahead of me. Even if he could kill me without even flinching, it didn’t stop me from getting infuriated. What the heck was his issue?

“Hurry up, Dove. You get a couple new weapons, sell some old stuff, blah, blah, blah, and I’ll go get some food,” he called over his shoulder to me. He acted nonchalant, but his shoulders seemed oddly tensed, like Steve’s whenever we would go out at night.

“I swear ‘ _ Brian’ _ , if you call me ‘ _ Dove’ _ one more time I’m gonna shove my dagger up your-”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s nice. Do it later and go get some arrows and whatever, will ya?” I glared at his retreating back for several seconds, imagining flames exploding over his head like I was a mage. Too bad I wasn’t. That would’ve been nice.

Halloran was Smelting’s best blacksmith, even though I didn’t  _ really _ like him, and he lived relatively close to the gate that Herobrine and I had entered, the West Gate. He was just a little ways east up the main street that passed through the whole town of Smelting, and a little north up a little alleyway and to a smaller road. I could take a normal route rather than an alleyway, but since I was only carrying my inventory bag and sword with me and I wanted to get this done as fast as possible, I took the shorter route. Like usual.

“Hey there, Halloran,” I called out the moment I came within hailing distance of the blacksmith's shop,  in my perkiest sing-song voice that I could muster. That was kind of tough since I wasn’t a very frisky kind of girl to begin with, and with the added guilt and worry and such of losing Steve, it was even worse. But, Halloran always was sort of biased, and gave lower prices to, well… The more  _ sensual _ customers. I didn’t like putting on that kind of act, but the show must go on, and I was kind of broke. All of my money was in one of the bigger cities of the realm, in a vault deep, deep underground.

“Well, well, well, who have we got here?” asked the Explorer, looking up from an iron sword he had been shaping on an anvil. He was very tall, and quite good-looking, with scarred arms from years at the forge. When I was much,  _ much _ younger I had been sort of interested in him, but that was  before I learned what a jerk he was. He wiped long black hair that had fallen out of his ponytail and sweat out of sapphire blue eyes with a gloved hand as he looked me up and down. I tried to give him a mischievous grin, but I think it came out more tired than anything. He dunked the sword into a barrel of water with a hiss of steam and walked over to me with something like a swagger. He didn’t know that I knew this, but I was well aware that he had kind of had his eye on me ever since I had begun my year’s travels, or basically since I became famous throughout this part of the region.

“You know exactly who you’re talking to, Halloran,” I said with a girlish giggle that was  _ definitely _ not me. Wow. That was just how desperate how I was; I was pretending to flirt with this guy. I cannot tell you just how much he disgusted me. “The one and only Evanescence, savior of the Western realms, on my way to save the East, but…” I gave a hugely dramatic sigh, knowing that the idiot would lap up everything I overdid. “I need your help with weapons and armor. A full set, the strongest you have. Please Halloran, I’m asking for your help.”

I was been acting  _ really _ weird as I said this. Well, weird for me at least. I was throwing my hips around and acting like some stupid damsel in distress, or like one of those pathetic wives of important lords that I despised so much. I even walked up to him at the end of my little spiel to place my hands on his chest and lean up against him. It seemed to do the trick. Halloran’s expression was infuriatingly arrogant, and his smirk was even more pointed and crooked than Herobrine’s. It was repulsive just how carnal some people in this country were. They made me frankly ashamed to be human sometimes, but I was desperate for these goods. I needed to save Steve, no matter the cost.

“Maybe I could work something up for you, little rabbit. Come back at a quarter after six if you really do want these sets of armor. Be ready to pay.”

I resisted the urge to throw up. His face was right up in my hair, and his breath smelled like old meat. But I forced on a ‘grateful’ smile as he lifted up my face by my chin and pushed away from him, waving behind me as I skipped down the stairs. “I’ll be here, then, Halloran.”

I only breathed again when I reached the main road, almost gasping. The smell of his putrid breath was in my hair now, making me want to be sick. As soon as I reached a public water pump I took down my ponytail and let the slightly metallic water wash it out. It made my hair look almost brown, but it felt good against my back in the hot sun. It was getting to be the heat of the day by now. I lounged in the shade against a stack of crates for a minute, looking around at some of the shops and stalls. The food probably wouldn’t be until farther down the road, so I couldn’t see Herobrine from where I was. But I still didn’t even see him when I was in the thick of all of the food stalls.

“Excuse me?” I walked up to a flower stall owner, a pretty Testificate woman in purple robes and a wreath of blue flowers around her head, with bright green eyes. The few strands of long brown hair at the back of her head typical of female Testificates was in a long braid. “You haven’t seen a man in blue shirt and longish brown hair around here, have you? He’s a… Friend, and I seemed to have lost him.”

“Oh yeah, I’ve seen a man like that arounds here. Was he just a little bit taller than you is, with really, really pretty pale blue eyes?” smiled the young woman, leaning up against her stall.

“Yes, that would be him,” I sighed. “Have you seen where he went?”

“I think he went a little ways east down the street,” she said, leaning over the table of her stall and pointing to my right. “He was a real looker, ya know; all of the girls and some of the women got reals excited when he walked down here ‘bout 20 minutes ago, see? Stops at a few of the stalls and then keeps goin’ on. He stopped at my stall to looks at some o’ my flowers.” The girl suddenly blushed and slapped her hands to her cheeks, grinning all over as she kept gushing. “Said I has real good flowers and he wants to buys somes from me, see?”

“Thanks,” I said, no longer listening and turning away.

“Wait! He’s not yer boysfriends, is ‘e?” she asked eagerly, reaching out a tanned hand to stop me. “We was all wondering, see, coz some o’ the girls was real excited afterall. That’s not why yer lookin’ for ‘im, is it?”

I couldn’t suppress a snort of laughter. “ _ Him _ ?  _ Brian _ ? Nah, he’s just someone I met, and he’s gotta help me out now. Thanks anyway.”

“No problem miss!” called out the girl as I walked briskly away, still chuckling.  _ Herobrine _ ? My  _ boyfriend _ ? How absurd was  _ that _ ? The dude had tried to kill me, kill my best friend, kill me again, and now I was forcing him into helping me save Steve, who just happened to be his brother, and whose guts he just so happened to hate. And it would have been bad for him even if he  _ was _ my boyfriend, because I just about throttled him when I found him lazing around in a restaurant with a knapsack full of food.

“What else do could you need?” he griped from behind me as we made our way once again down the street. I could feel annoyance rolling off him in waves, but I was angrier. I was surprised he didn’t shut up with how much I was fuming. “Honestly, you women-”

“This has nothing to do with me being a woman, Brine!” I barked at him, turning my furious gaze on him. “This has to do with you wasting money that we have precious little of and we need for our quest to save Steve, and with you sitting in the shade and lazing about while there’s work to be done!”

I stopped myself, both literally and figuratively. Herobrine ran into me from behind, stumbling a little as he regained his balance. I turned around to face him in the middle of the street, causing a little bit of a hold-up with the people around us. “Listen, jerk. I don’t care who you are, how long you’ve lived, or what you’ve done,” I said in a much calmer voice. “That’s in the past. This is the present. All that matters in the here and now is  _ here _ and  _ now _ . I need you to help me, because I can’t do all of this on my own, and it’s not because I’m a woman, it’s because I’m a single human. You’ve seen ants, right? One alone can do nothing, but when it gets its little buddies to help him, he can lift a corpse off of the ground. So I’m asking not just for your help, but your cooperation, too. I guess I didn’t specify that before.”

I turned around again and resumed walking. It was 6:05. Halloran would be expecting us. We decided to take the long route, and I saw a fletcher’s and told Herobrine to grab twelve stacks and two bows. I continued to Halloran’s on my own.

“Well, it looks like the little rabbit wand’ed those supplies after all,” called Halloran to another man who was sitting beside him outside the forge. “Good thing you came, Eva, Matthias here was just about to sell it to some tramp, but I stopped him.” He elbowed his friend in the ribs, bursting out into raucous laughter when his friend spat out his drink and began coughing.

“Where is your famed armor, Halloran?” I said sweetly, leaning up against one of the wooden poles that held up the overhang of the forge. “Inside?”

“Yeah, ’ll go’n grab it,” he slurred. Had he been drinking? The sun was just setting! “Matt! Help me ged the stuff.”

The two went inside and I leaned up against the pole for real. The western end of Smelting was on a higher elevation than the east. A little above the horizon, I saw the evening star, Jubilus. Steve and I would sit out on his porch on nights like this and watch Jubilus rise into the night sky. I closed my eyes and prayed he was okay. If anything happened to him, if anything  _ had _ happened to him, it would be my fault.

“’Ere we go,” groaned a voice from behind me, and I whipped around to see Halloran and Matthias hefting the pieces to a set of iron armor, a little boy who looked remarkably like Halloran carrying two iron swords in leather scabbards, and a slightly older boy with bright red hair lugging an iron shield. “My fines’ works yet,” said Halloran with a drunken grin, gesturing proudly to the armor. His finest, I wouldn’t call them. But they would have to do. I had to go as fast as I could.

“These are perfect,” I said, not looking at him, but leaning over the table and lifting one of my feet like a typical girl would. “These will work absolutely fabulously! How much do I owe you, Halloran?”

“One night.”

“One… What?”

I turned around confused. Matthias seemed slightly more sober that Halloran was, and just as surprised and confused as I did. “Hal, what are you talkin’ ‘bout? You don’ ser’sly want-”

“Oh yes I do,” growled Halloran. He walked slowly over to the corner I was standing in, licking his lips. “I’ve wann’ed to touch ‘er… Fer ‘s long ‘s I can remember…”

My heart began racing. The smith had backed me into a corner and held his arms out so I couldn’t move, his tongue hanging disgustingly out of his mouth. Halloran was drunk to the extent that talking wasn’t about to do anything. I kneed him hard in the stomach, but he barely flinched before grabbing my wrists and pulling me closer to him. Matthias looked scared and ushered the two wide eyed boys back into the shop and closed the door. “Hal, git away from ‘er. Just take ‘er money n’ go!” He grabbed Halloran’s arm, but was immediately thrown away and crashed into the table holding the armor. I shrank against the wall again, trying to yank my wrist out of his hard hand, my heart in my throat and sweat beading on my forehead.

“S-stay away from me!” I choked out, trying to get away from him, but he was too close. “ _ Get away!” _

__ He towered above me, letting go of my hands and grabbing my shirt and trying to kiss me. His breath reeked of alcohol, and I closed my eyes, biting back a scream.

“Hey!”

Halloran and I both turned to look outside the forge. Herobrine was standing just outside and began walking slowly forward, looking between me and the scum above me. “Just who do you think you are, buddy?” He snarled, looking forbidding. His eyes looked slightly over bright.

“H-hero-” I said, choking back a sob. I hated being this weak, and it was not good that Herobrine was seeing me being so easily taken advantage of, but he came for me… He came to help, right?

“Git outta ‘ere, shorty,” shouted Halloran, swiping at Herobrine, who dodged easily. He was definitely taller than Herobrine.

“That’s  _ my _ woman, pal, so you best let her go before it gets ugly,” said Herobrine in a quieter voice. My stomach sank.  _ His _ woman? Halloran gave a huge shout and let me go so that I fell weak to the floor, and ran to Herobrine, fueled by alcohol induced rage. I crawled over to Matthias, covering my head with my arms at a huge crash as Herobrine and Halloran fought.

“Can you stand up?” I asked. Matthias shook his head dazedly before nodding, and I wrapped an arm around his shoulder to help him up. We struggled outside, trying to avoid flying bits of wood and metal. Matthias was bleeding badly on his head, half of his face covered in crimson blood. “Thanks for trying to help me,” I said, trying to mop up his wound with a bit of my shirt that I had ripped off.

“He was ‘bout ta git ya,” he slurred, wincing in pain. “I wasn’ bout ta let that happen… You’re a hero…” I smiled a tiny bit. This guy seemed decent, even if he was drunk.

“Hold that on there,” I said, holding the scrap of cloth to his wound. The noise the other two men were making had subsided. “I’m gonna go see wants going on.”

I peered slowly around the corner, hating myself for being scared. I couldn’t control my shaking fingers as they curled around the wood wall. The armor, shields, and swords were scattered all across the floor. A few coals were on the floor, still giving off heat. And there, ten feet away, Herobrine stood by an unconscious Halloran, raising a spectral, transparent blue sword above his head, about to deliver a finishing blow.

“Herobrine, no!” I shouted, running at him and almost knocking him over and grabbing his hand holding the sword.

“Eva, this human almost tried to-” he sputtered, glaring at Halloran on the floor. I didn’t even register the fact that that had been the first time Herobrine had used my real name.

“I know what he almost did, Herobrine, I was there, but please don’t kill him!” I said desperately, letting go of his hand and clutching the front of his shirt. I felt something wet trickle down my cheek, and Herobrine stared at me with amazement before slowly lowering his sword.

“Even after what he almost did to you, you want to spare him?” he asked softly and slowly, obviously astounded. There was a funny look in his eyes, but I couldn’t exactly tell what it was.

“Yes, I do,” I said, nodding vigorously. Another something wet ran down my cheek and over my lips. “Think about it, Herobrine. It’s kind of suspicious when a dead body is in their own shop and the last customer is nowhere to be seen, and… And think about what he does!”

“You mean do  _ that _ to unsuspecting female customers?” shouted Herobrine, throwing out a hand to Halloran’s limp figure still lying in a heap in the ground a few feet away. “Yes, Eva, I think that’s what he does, and he needs to pay for it!”

“No! He’s one of the only reasons that Smelting is guarded and safe! Without him, not very many people could do armor and weapon repairs. As much as I hate this man, he’s the best at what he does! Without him many, many more people will die; women, children, husbands, wives; innocent people!”

“You do remember who you’re talking to right girl?”

“Herobrine, stop! I hate him just as much as you do!  _ More _ , even! He tried to get me! He’s a disgusting excuse for an Explorer, but you have to get a hold on yourself! You’re not evil, and you’re not a murderer. You may have been at one point, but you aren’t anymore.”

He looked shocked, like my words had actually rattled his bones. The spectral ghost sword shimmered and disappeared. He turned away from me and said softly, “Fine. I won’t kill him. Take your armor. We gotta hurry now and get out of here.”

I did exactly that, not even bothering with the sword or shield. I already had my diamond sword, and shields wouldn’t do much else but get in the way. I just needed the armor. The moment the armor touched my inventory bag, it shrunk into miniscule size just like any inventory item. My hands were shaking. Blood… There was blood on my hand… Why?

I looked at it curiously, then at Halloran several feet away, buried under the wreckage of the table. There was no blood on him, just bruises. And besides, I hadn’t touched him. Was it Matthias’s? I had wiped that off, too. I turned in Herobrine’s direction and saw the familiar silver glint of a sliver knife being pulled out of his arm. He glared at it for a moment, looking at the sharp blade with revulsion before tossing it aside and looking at me again.

“Hurry up, girl, if you want to get home before nightfall, and before the authorities find this scumbag,” he said, glancing over his shoulder and looking back at me. “It’s late enough as it is. We’ll be cutting it close.”

I scrambled up to my feet, adjusting my bag nervously and following Herobrine out the gates, not glancing back once. This had not been a pleasant trip into the village like the past. The past was dust, now… Dust, blown away by the null winds of an endless Void.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'MA FIX EVERYTHING!!
> 
> AND WATCH INUYASHA!!
> 
> YEAH!!
> 
> Also, hOLY LONG CHAPTER


	13. Down

Chapter 13

**_Down_ **

_Evanescence’s POV_

* * *

 

    “Hey, wake up,” said a voice in my ear. I moaned and rolled back over, pulling the thin blanket over my head. Someone was trying to shake me awake, so I had no say in the matter of whether I slept or woke up.

    “Steve, go away,” I whined, trying to push him away. He froze, and I opened my eyes. Herobrine looked mildly confused and slightly shocked. How had he sounded so much like Steve? My heart sank at the sight of him, and I felt the onsets of a headache already, remembering the events of yesterday. I fell back on the ground with a groan. Steve was still in the Void. And I was still stuck with a fairy tale murderer.

    “We’ve wasted enough time as it is,” he said, looking at the sun and shouldering his inventory pack. There were tons of heavy, dark clouds in the sky. “Steve’s been in the Void for two days already. I’m not sure how much longer he can last. And it looks like rain today, too, so that’s not going to help us.”

    “Yeah, yeah,” I sighed, rolling over and pushing myself up. The grass was itchy. I had no clue how I had fallen asleep on it. We weren’t at my house because we had decided to set out immediately after just grabbing whatever supplies we had left there. It was risky at night, and we only got a few thousand chunks away before we had to stop for the night. Herobrine had dark circles under his eyes. “Why didn’t you wake me up for watch last night?” I asked angrily as he yawned.

    He shrugged noncommittally. “Didn’t wanna wake you?”

    “But I need to take some responsibility on this quest.”

    “Then take it tonight,” he waved his hand dismissively at me, and anger flared in my chest. “But we gotta get going right now. Rain, remember?”

    I wanted to argue some more, but –I hated to admit it- Herobrine had a point. Judging by the sun, it was already about seven in the morning, and we had wanted to go as soon as the sun had risen. We were late to begin with, and every minute counted. I stuffed my blanket into my bag and swung it around my shoulder with a huge stretch and a yawn. My body was stiff, and my stomach growled softly. Herobrine was climbing a tree and came back down with two red apples. “Breakfast,” he said around a mouthful. I bit into it with little hesitation, the sweet juices exploding from the fruit.   

    “So remind me how we’re going to get to the Void to save Steve,” I said in a muffled voice as the core of the apple disappeared into my mouth and wiped my hands on my chest-plate. Yes, I eat apple cores. Herobrine gave a tiny shudder. It was kind of funny to see him squirm, but that also told me just how terrifying the Void was.

    “The Void… Jeeze… You do know what it is, right?” he asked, watching a couple pigs wander aimlessly past us.

    “It’s nothingness, right?”

    “Sort of. The Void is physically technically nothingness, complete emptiness and darkness. Very little can survive in it for long. And even if your body can survive it to begin with, then it destroys your mind. The lack of anything makes people go insane, obliterates any reason and makes you go mad. Most people end up dying of thirst or killing themselves.”

    “How do you know that?”

    “It’s told me.”

    “What?”

    “You heard me. I’m not like you humans. I can survive the Void, up until a… A time. I’m not exactly invincible. Just more invincible than you.”

    “How does it talk to you?”

    A look of faraway concentration crossed Herobrine’s face as he stopped and gazed into space. “I’m… Not sure. Never have been. Been years since I’ve held even a friendly conversa-”

    He stopped talking, eyes wide, and turned on me with such a sudden fury I took a step back. His eyes were glowing again.

    “Look what you’re doing to me! I’m rambling to a human! Why are you making me tell you this! How!”

    I was angry suddenly too. “ _Oi_ , it’s not my fault that you got no friends to talk to!” I jabbed my finger in his face, and he backed down. At least, he looked away from me, but he didn’t apologize, and he still looked furious.

    “ _Women_ ,” he muttered under his breath, walking away and shaking his head. Something inside me snapped.

    “ _What_! Excuse me?” I exploded, suddenly livid. “What does me being a woman have anything to do with… With anything?”

    “Because women are masters of wheedling information out of men.” He looked satisfied with his answer, like there was no way I could argue with him, but of course there was. Rain began to fall around us.

    “Oh sure, because you’re totally not a demon, and the first time that a woman asks you a simple question, you start spilling your secrets! That totally means that you’re not just some lonely guy and that I’m some sort of incredible monster who is the only one who can get you to talk!”

    “Masters of persuasion, as I said. And also, how did you say that much with only one breath?”

    “I haven’t persuaded you to do a single Notch blessed thing!” I cried, ignoring his second statement and shoving him so that he stumbled a little. Rain was starting to get into my eyes. “It’s not my fault that you haven’t talked to anyone but the stupid essence of evil for a millennia! No wonder you kill people! If you have to suffer, so does everyone else! Let me just tell you something, idiot, your problems don’t matter in the long run, so don’t take out all of your self-pity fueled anger on me!”

    “I have too talked with people before you,” grumbled Herobrine indignantly, walking on so that I had to jog to keep up with him.

    “Playing cat and mouse doesn’t count, Brine!”

    “You are _so_ annoying, you know that?”

    “And you’re just pissed ‘cause I’m right, aren’t you, and you _know_ that I’m right!”

    Lightning crashed suddenly behind us. Someone yelped in the flash, which was immediately drowned out by the roar of deafening thunder. I opened my eyes lying down in a puddle of mud that had formed around me. Herobrine was above me, shaking my shoulder and shouting, but I couldn’t make out any of the words. His features were blurry. My head fell back into the puddle. It hurt so badly, so, so bad…

    “Evanescence! Eva! Eva, you have to get up!” I heard him shout. His voice was fuzzy too, like my ears were full of wool, and he was yelling at me from a very far distance. I lifted up my hand and tried to reach him, to touch him. I grasped weakly at thin air until his firm, calloused hand grabbed mine. It was vaguely comforting; like Steve’s had been that one time I had fallen into a cave and broken my ankle. Herobrine yanked me up to my feet when I had grabbed his hand. My head spun, and my knees were weak. Had the lightning really been that close? Was I weak? I shook my head. No, I was not weak! I refused to be weak. It was so weird that only since I’ve met Him that I’ve seemed to be losing my nerve. And I didn’t like it.

    “Lemme go, Brine,” I said over another crack of lightning. He was supporting me, holding my shoulders, and looking around.

    “No, we gotta get you to shelter!”

    “I said let me go!” I yanked my wrist out of his hand and stumbled away. Seemed promising; I could at least stand, and my head suddenly cleared. But I was really unbalanced. I staggered down the hill, faster and faster until I was simply trying to get my sluggish legs to keep up with my pace. I wouldn’t stumble, though. Instead, I felt the ground disappear from under me suddenly, and was looking down into a well; a deep hole in the earth, like a giant had put a stake there that had long since been removed, leaving behind only the stony caves. I fell and ran into the opposite wall, carried by my momentum. I felt my left wrist crack on impact and I spun away from the wall.

    _Well, this was a sad way to die_ , I thought blandly as I felt myself begin to plummet. _Evanescence; warrior, leader of many won battles, and adventurer- dying by falling down a hole in the rain and in the presence of Minecraftia’s most terrifying legend._ How pathetic. And… I couldn’t save Steve if I was dead.

    I closed my eyes, resigned to the worst. If I was to die today, if it was Notch’s will, then so be it. I just wish I could have saved my best friend.

    Strong arms suddenly wrapped around me, holding me close, accompanied by the sensation of one’s stomach finally catching up to them after a drop. I opened my eyes to see the wet stone rushing toward me and shrieked. But I slowed, and hit the ground with only a soft bump, landing on top of Herobrine, who let me go and gasped for breath. I rolled off of him, and we both lay there, panting. The raindrops that reached me were slightly painful as they landed on my exposed face and hands.

    “You… Frickin’… Idiot!” huffed Herobrine next to me, rolling over onto his stomach and pushing himself up to his knees. “That was a brilliant, _brilliant_ idea! Did you seriously wake up this morning and think “let’s go cliff jumping, only let’s do it while there’s a thunderstorm, not bring an Elytra, and run off without telling the other person that I’m going to do it”? You know what that’s called? Suicide! That was… That was…”

    His voice trailed off. His face came back into view, and I was surprised to see shock and concern on it.

    “Eva? What’s wrong?”

    Wrong? Wrong? What was wrong? I didn’t know what he was talking about.

    “You’re crying. That’s what’s wrong, Dove.” He must have heard y thought or something. I sat up and felt my face. He was right. I was crying. Salty tears were mingling with the slightly metallic taste of the rain on my face. Why was I crying? Why? Was I scared? I think I must have been. I think I screamed. But I can’t remember anything but the numbness of right now. “Hey, hey, it’s… It’s okay?” I gave a dry laugh which changed into a gasp of pain as I moved my wrist. Herobrine sounded so nervous, like he had never tried comforting someone before. Honestly, the way he said it, it was more like he was asking me if it was okay to even ask in the first place. I doubt he has actually tried to think about how other people feel, at least not for a long time. A very, very long time.

    “What happened? Did you break your wrist?”

    “I… Yeah, I think I did,” gasped, gripping my wrist. He rummaged through his inventory and brought out a couple stick and some string.

    “Give me your hand,” he said, grabbing it and not even waiting for me to answer. He focused his eyes  on my wrist enclosed in his hand and held it. The pain dulled and faded. “Don’t try moving it for a while. It’s not entirely healed, so keep it wrapped up with this splint.”

    “Thanks,” I said as he began to wrap the two sticks around my wrist with some of the bandages in my inventory bag so it was firmly in place. “Do you think that you could fly us out of here?”

    Herobrine shrugged, peering up into the rainy skies chunks above us. “I could fly myself up there no problem, but with another person right now, it’d be too dangerous. Too much wind coming into the well, too much rain, too much lightning. Wouldn’t risk it.”

    I was hardly listening to him anymore. Instead, I was looking around, specifically at the cave offshoot in front of me. There were two caves; one behind me, one in front of me, that lead out of the well. “Brine?” I asked slowly, tugging at his sleeve. My heart rate sped up painfully. “H-herobrine?”

    “What?” He saw what real quick. Three skeletons had their bows trained on us, and about twice that many zombies were close by their sides. “Oh, them… Run.”

    I would have fought, but Herobrine pushed me in the direction of the other cave, and my nerves and emotions, not to mention my _wrist_ , were too frayed and frazzled to let me fight. If worst came to worst, I always had my sword and armor. I sprinted into the cave, which went in relatively flat for about twenty meters before dropping steeply. Arrows flew over my head, and I heard Herobrine scrabbling on the damp rock behind me. I looked up at a soft thump and heard Herobrine falter. The shaft of an arrow protruded from his shoulder, but when he saw me looking, he waved me on with a grimace before pulling out the arrow and throwing it back at the mobs.

    “I think we lost them,” I said after a few more minutes of climbing. “Maybe we should stop for a while. I got some torches in my inventory, but I need a second to pull them out. Cover for me.”

    It took literally about three seconds to get out the torches and light one of them. I held it aloft, looking at the cave we were in. The warm yellow firelight didn’t reach the farthest corners, but I saw enough to recognize that we were in a crossways. “Looks like a crossways,” I told Herobrine. He nodded.

    “Can I have a torch?”

    “I dunno, _can_ you, Brine?” I chuckled nervously, eyes darting around the cavern.

    “Are you really going to play around right now? I just saved you from certain death by falling, if I need to remind you.”

    “Whatever. You’re no fun.”

    “No fun?” Herobrine sounded hurt as I handed him the torch I was carrying and lit a new one. “What do ya mean, ‘no fun’? I’m tons of fun, so long as I don’t kill you first.”

    I glared at him, unamused. “Well I’m not convinced so far. And nobody knows if you’re fun or not.”

    “Sure, Steve does…” his voice trailed off like it had earlier, his grin changing into a clouded, protected expression as he looked at the crossways. I stared at him for another second before turning my attention to the caves as well. This was a tiny crossways, with only five tunnels that led off, but each was dark and forbidding. I never have really liked walking into the darkness. My back always felt exposed, and I couldn’t tell if something was in the emptiness ahead. It made me think of the Void, that impenetrable darkness that no light could disperse.

    “Into the dark?” I asked, nudging Herobrine.

    “Into the dark,” he agreed, and we stepped into the first cavern, our footsteps loud in the silence of the caves. “Just how I like it.”

    The first path, the one on the far left, wound around, going down for a chunk or so before doubling back and opening up to the tunnel next to it. I grumbled angrily for quite a few chunks about how useless that little path had been, partly for the enjoyment of seeing it bother Herobrine, as we went into the next one, which wandered around for several minutes before coming to a dead end. It was Herobrine’s turn to gripe and groan and watch me try not to explode at him.

    “This may be one of the dumbest cave systems in the entire world!” I whined, turning for the third time to face the crossways. What if none of the caves led anywhere? We would have to go back, but that was dangerous. Way too dangerous. Herobrine’s heavy footsteps next to me echoed in the third tunnel as it turned down steeply, about a three meter drop in a few places, and I watched his stony face in silence.

    Something was off about him. It was odd. Every child in this realm knew the legend of the Nether King, but this man next to me just didn’t seem to fit the name. Yes, he had tried to kill me, and yes, I had seen his powers and seen him escape the Void, but he didn’t act regal like a king of monsters and he didn’t look like a legend… Heck, he looked only a couple of years older than I was. It was strange that he barely had used his powers around me since then. Why didn’t he just kill all of those mobs back in the bottom of the Well? He could have destroyed them easily if the stories were true. And why didn’t he completely heal my wrist? Sure I was grateful that it wasn’t broken like before, but still.

    “You do remember I can still listen to your thoughts, right?” he asked, scowling. I jumped, almost dropping my torch in my shock. I didn’t say anything and he looked at me, his expression giving away just the tiniest hint of sadness. “Some secrets are best left to rot in the Void, Dove.”

    “Why? What happened?” I asked. I don’t want to say that I was concerned, but I was concerned.

    “Nothing that matters to you, human,” he muttered.

    “It matters if it affects your capacity to act in this quest.” I had returned to my dry, sarcastic tone.

    “ _Capacity_? If has nothing to do with what I do, girl. I’m telling you, stop worrying about it. Besides, we have more pressing matters at hand.”

    “Such as?” I asked sarcastically. He glared at me, stopping and folding his arms.

    “Well, it’s within _my_ capacity to go on walking through dark caves for days without rest, but I don’t think that humans are really capable of that now, are they?”

    “Why you little-”

    “You’re just pissed because I’m right, and you know that I’m right,” said Herobrine with an evil grin, using the exact same sentence I had earlier. I opened my mouth to start chewing him out but he cut in. “You’re going to need to rest at some point, so we need to figure out what the arrangements are going to be. These caves are freezing after all, and filled with hostile mobs.”

    He was right. The caves were freezing. I was wearing the black long-sleeved turtle necked shirt and black trousers that I usually wore with my armor and into battle, but the freezing cold of the caves bit my skin even through it and my armor. I shivered, Herobrine gave a smug little smirk that made me want to slap him. “Then you’ll just have to sit with me at night,” I said, glaring. Herobrine looked surprised, taking a step back. “Retain body heat, maybe have a torch lit, too.”

    “Well…” he said slyly, the grin returning to his face slowly. “If I’m going to be sleeping next you, then that’s fine, but… I might do _naughty_ things…”

    “Huh?” I asked, slow catching on. “Like what?”

    “Things like this.” He stepped forward and pinned my arms against the wall. The torches dropped, and we were plunged into semi-darkness. I could see his eyes glowing half an inch away from my nose.

    “Brine! What are you-”

    “Quiet,” he whispered, all sarcasm and joking gone. I fell silent, listening as well. “Skeletons. Maybe a couple spiders… I think we’re by a Spawner.”

    I could hear it too, now; the familiar popping and clacking of skeleton bones, hissing and spitting from the spiders. There was no point asking why or how he had heard the Spawner over our conversation. He was a supernatural demon, after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could even see the Spawner through the walls. But the chance of there just being a Spawner here was frightening. I had only ever encountered two Spawners in my life, not including this one, and both were near death experiences for me. And both times, I had at least had Steve to help me, but he wasn’t here this time.

    “If we’re going to be sleeping together,” said Herobrine in front of me, letting me go and summoning his spectral glowing blue sword. “Then you need to be more fun to hold.”

    “What?” I hissed, drawing my own sword. Herobrine laughed and ran lightly down the cave tunnel and I chased him, biting back several screamed retorts and refraining from trying not to cut him into ribbons. He stopped suddenly in front of me and I ran into his back, almost falling over. His expression was excited and determined. “Now, I’m all warmed up… Who’s first?”

    We were surrounded by skeletons, gazing at us with wide, blank, soulless eyes and clacking and popping in their arcane, cadaveresque language. Several already had bows and arrows trained on us. I raised my diamond sword, and Herobrine swished his phantom blade around a few times and sending glowing balls of yellow light into the air before leaping into action, laughing and cutting down three skeletons with one strike. Before their bones had even clattered to the ground, he had decimated six more with a vicious downswing. I was astounded by his speed and strength, but it was time for him to see that this human wasn’t quite as helpless as she seemed. I sped at a skeleton aiming his arrow at my head and slashed off his head with one stroke and cut through his spine with a backswing of the same strike. It fell to the stone ground with a shrieking hiss, and one of its brethren’s arrows whizzed by my face, biting deeply into my cheek. I leapt up to the ledge it was crouching on and dispatched of it with a single cut.

    Herobrine was below me, sword to sword with a sword skeleton that had joined the fight. I looked over to my left and saw another archer aiming an arrow at Herobrine’s back. I wasn’t in a position to jump over to it and kill it. “Herobrine!” I shouted in warning, stomping on the skull of the skeleton that had come back to life and was trying to bite my leg. He sliced through the enemy and turned to see the skeleton loose the arrow. I thought he was about to be impaled, but he dodged the arrow with unnatural speed and ran up the ledge. I blinked, and the next thing I knew, the skull of the skeleton was bouncing off the side of the overhang. The remaining three or four skeletons all turned tail and began to run away, but both Herobrine and I picked up bows and aimed, my left wrist screaming in pain, which I ignored as I trained my arrow on one of the skeletons. Two of the cadavers fell to the ground with arrows in their spines and skulls, and a third shattered at my second arrow, but the fourth managed to escape.

    “Crap,” I wheezed, jumping off of my ledge and onto the ground. The little balls of light were fading, and I tried to light another torch from my inventory. Herobrine, landed lightly beside me, watching the hole that the skeleton had escaped from with burning eyes before looking at me. He was breathing just as heavily as I was. “That one must be going… To the Spawner… Right?”

    “I guess so… But that’s where… We have to go to,” he answered, taking deep breaths. I slowed down as well before gasping as a red hot needle-like pain shot up my arm into my shoulder. “Why the Nether would you fight when you’re in this condition? Trying to impress me?”

    I was simply biting my tongue trying to hold back tears of pain. But I guess while I was pretty good at hiding pain from other humans, I was less adept at it when it came to demons. Herobrine rolled his eyes and grabbed my wrist again. “Honestly Dove, you’re going to made all of this damage irreparable if you keep hurting it while it’s healing.”

    “I’m not useless,” I muttered under my breath, hoping against hope that that was true. Herobrine looked at me kind of funny before shaking his head and grabbing my wrist. “ _Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow_!” I gasped, my voice a whole pitch higher than usual.

    “Hold still, I’m going to try and heal it again,” he growled, closing his eyes again in total concentration. “Completely this time.” I held still, flinching, and felt the tingling numbness from before. Herobrine opened his eyes and looked into mine, a little crease between his dark eyebrows. He didn’t look away, so I took my hand out of his. My wrist felt a little sore when I rubbed it, but nothing more.

    “Thanks?” I said uncertainly. Herobrine blinked slowly, saying nothing. “Uh… What are you-”

    “No problem, Dove.”

    “Oh, okay.” This was really awkward. I was leaning back just a little, but Herobrine was leaning forward towards me, and he just kept staring. My nervousness came out more like anger. “What do you _want_ Brine?”

    “Nothing I think you’ll give me,” he said, a little sadly. He leaned back and turned away to start walking down the little cave tunnel that the skeleton had escaped to. I rubbed my hand against my chestplate, feeling my heartbeat in my throat slow down before following him. We walked in silence, me holding the torch and Herobrine his spectral glowing sword.

    “Hold up,” he said at last, and I stopped. He was looking at the cave wall. It looked like there were pictures on it.

    “What are those?” I asked, holding my torch closer to the wall. “Hieroglyphs?”

    “Maybe…” Herobrine ran his hand along the wall. “They’re carvings for sure.”

    “What’s this one?” I pointed to a picture above my head with five figures arranged in a diamond shaped pattern and connected by lines, one in each corner and one in the center. The top one was bigger than the rest and draped in flowing clothes while the one on the bottom was completely carved out, like a silhouette. The two on the side were identical and surrounded by what looked like fire, with the one next to them in the center one looked like it had one feathered and one bat wing, also surrounded by the fire

    “I’m not... Sure,” said Herobrine slowly, squinting at it. “Hold up the torch higher.”

    I lifted the torch above my head so the carving came into clear view, firelight dancing across the images and making it seem like they were moving. A sudden, agonizing pain made me gasp and drop the torch as I fell to my knees.

    “Eva? Eva!” Herobrine turned and stared at my chest. I looked down and saw the silvery glint of a diamond tipped arrowhead protruding clean through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY I HAD trouble several months ago figuring out Eva's character. She seems kinda weak, but I'm gonna fix it in future chapters. I had a rough time figuring out Herobrine's character to, actually, But I think I've got it now.
> 
> ALSO, the "I might do naughty things" quote is a reference to one of my favorite mangas EVER, Akatsuki no Yona (Yona of the Dawn). 10/10 do recommend, yep yep, I ove it to bits.


	14. Sorry for the Pain

Chapter 14

**_Sorry for the Pain_ **

_ Herobrine’s POV _

* * *

 

“Oh gosh, oh crap, what the Nether,” I said frantically under my breath, looking at the glinting arrowhead and falling to my knees, grabbing Eva’s shoulders. The arrow had passed clean through her iron armor, through her back and out her chest. She coughed wetly, violently, blood spattering her hands and the stone floor. I looked past her and deep into the cave we were in and saw the skeleton that had escaped earlier still holding his bow in position, another arrow nocked and aimed at my face. I felt a scream tear my throat and I raised my hand. It was surrounded by bright blue flames, and the skeleton let his arrow loose. Halfway through its journey, it burst into blue flame and ash fell to the floor. The skeleton was lifted into the air, clacking and rattling in a panic.

I made a fist, and the skeleton burst into flames, crushed and no more. I turned back to Eva. Her face was white, and every breath she took was shaky and shallow. “Holy good for nothing fricken’ danged Notch, why?” I said, trying the grab hold of the arrow with shaking hands. The arrowhead snapped off the shaft with little effort. I put my wrist by her mouth. “Eva, I’m going to pull out the shaft. Bite my arm. You’re gonna want to…” 

She coughed up more blood, trying to nod. “Why would I bite you?” she gasped. I closed my eyes and pulled it out of her back, ignoring the pain as she bit into my wrist hard enough to draw blood. It was a fraction of the pain the must be feeling. The shaft came out with little resistance, covered in blood. I cut the leather straps that held Eva’s armor and the chest plate fell off with a loud  _ chunk _ . Her dark shirt was wet with blood that I couldn’t see well. “Eva?” I asked to no answer. She’d passed out after I pulled the arrow shaft out of her back. I leaned her forward so she was laid across my legs, her chest on my lap and face down, and put both hands over the wound in her back.

I didn’t like healing. Steve had always been better at it than me, and I wasn’t the kind of person who would help people. I was always the impulsive killer. Steve was the rational, sagely, healing kind of nice guy that I never could be. He helped other people. It felt unnatural to me. It was tiring, whereas my brother could do it all day. Sure I healed myself on a normal basis with no effort, but for others, it was difficult. Part of the reason I never did it. And besides, no one was ever near enough for me to heal them to begin with. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the wet blood in the palm of my hand. Life blood… _ I don’t think you’re an inherently evil person. And even if you don’t see me the same way, I want to believe you’re my friend. I feel like you want a friend, too. I want to be that person… _

__ That was what she had said to me. It felt like an age already that she had said it to me even though it had been two nights ago. A friend… That was something I hadn’t had in eons. I was an immortal, murderous, monster. This human was so confusing. I tried to kill her, got dang close too. I’ve been nothing but a bastard to her, made her upset, hurt her, made her cry and lose everything she held dear. But she never, ever turned her back on me. Now it was my turn. My head pounded; a good sign. The healing had taken hold. I could feel Eva’s breathing ease up under my hands. Why were they shaking? How could they be shaking?

“You’re gonna be okay, Dove,” I said softly, rolling her to the ground so that she lay face up on the stone floor. She sighed a little in her sleep. My heart beat a little faster. What was wrong with me? It must be that we were still in a vulnerable position. 

No… Not  _ we _ . 

_ She. I _ was immortal. I knew that  _ I _ couldn’t die, really. But this girl was mortal. She wasn’t indestructible like I was. She could die. I leaned my head up against the stone wall, pulling one of my legs to my chest with a sigh. This was another reason why I didn’t like humans. They were so annoyingly fragile, so easily broken. They’re like toothpicks, with a lifespan so short before they’re thrown away, lost among other souls in death and nameless. Maybe that was a possible reason why I kill them. They’re killed by a legend. Maybe I just liked killing. Did I? I thought I did at one point, but do I now?

Maybe. So why didn’t I just let this human next to me die?

I shook my head and growled. What was wrong with me? And why did I keep asking what was wrong with me? I must be going crazy or…

“Nope!” I said out loud, a little louder than perhaps I had meant. My voice echoed back at me,  _ nope, nope, nope, nope _ … “Nope,” I sighed one more time before standing up and looking up and down the cave tunnel. No one was there. “Well,” I said, mostly to myself. “Looks like we need to go then, eh? How’re we gonna do this…”

I ended up just picking up the girl and carrying her. I took off the rest of her armor and stuffed it into my inventory bag to get rid of some of the weight. For a normal female human, she was a tiny bit lighter than usual. Funny; I expected her to be heavier. She was a warrior, after all. Muscle mass, right? Know what? Forget that I said anything. I realized after about an hour of wandering deeper and deeper into the cave that I was talking to the girl. It’s not like she could hear me or anything, but I just kept saying things like “It’s a little steep here”, or “Don’t freak out, but there’s a bat on the ceiling” and stupid things like that. About that time she started to start moving around more, so I stopped and set her down. It took her a minute to wake up. So… I decided to play a prank on her in the meantime.

“Oh Notch, what happened…?” she groaned, opening her eyes. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw me next to her. “Oh Notch! Holy fricken’ mother of fricken’ Notch, Herobrine, what the Nether! Put your fricken’ shirt back on!”

I couldn’t stop laughing as I pulled my shirt over my head. “Holy heck, that was great!” I wheezed, collapsing next to her. 

“Why does it hurt to move?” She whimpered, pressing her right hand to her chest and rubbing it.

“Well, you did just get impaled by a diamond arrow, so that might have something to do with it,” I pointed out helpfully. She gave me a filthy look before leaning her head back. “I healed as much as I could, but that doesn’t mean I healed everything,” I said on a slightly more serious note.

“Hurts to breathe a little bit, too,” she groaned.

“Can you stand?” I asked dryly. She glowered at me again.

“Of course I can stand!”

“Prove it,” I laughed. She pulled herself up, trying to get a grip on the wall with her fingernails. Her knees shook like aspen leaves in wind, and her breathing became suddenly ragged again. But she stood. I was… Surprised, to say the least, by her determination. Maybe it was to one-up me, but maybe it was just her being stupid. “Wow. Can you walk?”

She took a step forward and promptly fell on top of me. It hurt, but it wasn’t, well… _Entirely_ _unwelcome_. “Jeeze Louise,” I groaned, trying to sit back up. “You can’t walk, that’s obvious. I’ll have to help you.”

_Oh my Notch, oh my Notch, what the Nether_ _why_ , came her voice into my mind. My stomach dropped in a really weird way, but I began laughing like crazy again. Her hazel eyes were wide with embarrassment and fear. It was funny, so I started laughing even harder. “Seriously?” I choked.

“What?” she said, in a panic, still trying to get off of me. “What’s so funny?” She finally rolled off and onto the stone next to me. She looked scared, and her face was bright, bright red. She was hilarious, but I wasn’t about to say that out loud. It’s been millennia since I had laughed so hard. Playing another little prank on her could make everything funnier as well. I rolled over and pinned her shoulders to the ground, leaning over her so that I could feel her shaky breath on my lips.

“You’re the funny one, Dove,” I whispered into her ear and felt her shiver. I chuckled just because I knew it would make her uncomfortable, and then stood up and started walking down the cave again, leaving her on the floor. Just when I started to congratulate myself on that little win, something hard hit the back of my head.

“Ow!” I shouted, turning around to see the girl on her knees and breathing heavily. “What the heck was that for!”

“You jerk!” I was surprised to see tears falling from her eyes as she picked up another stone and threw it at my chest. It hit me with a soft thump and fell to the ground with a clatter. “Why the Nether would you do that! You really are a monster, aren’t you!”

That was harsh. “A monster?” I asked cautiously. “What are ya talking about? I was just playing a little game with you, Do-”

“You don’t get it, do you? You’re such an idiot! I’m not y-your plaything!  _ Nobody _ is! You can’t see that, can you! Humans are sentient beings! We aren’t beneath you, we aren’t toys, and we aren’t  _ animals _ like you are!” She was shaking and gasping with sobs as she screamed at me. Her legs buckled, and she sank to her knees, clutching her chest like she was trying to shield herself from something. Me? I felt a twinge of something I had not felt in a long, long time as I knelt in front of her, trying to see her face.

“Jeeze, that’s not what I… I’m sorry, Dove, I didn’t think that… I just…” Her body was racked with sobs and I felt that feeling again. It had been so long since I had felt it, I wasn’t sure what it was at first. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t pain. It was a knawing in my stomach that wasn’t hunger. It was… Remorse, I think. I actually felt sorry. And as soon as I realized what it was, it hurt even more until I felt like crawling into a hole and letting her fill it in, one shovelful at a time. It was almost a physical pain. I hesitated, then pulled her over and rested her head on my chest and hugging her. Her sobs shook me, but she didn’t resist as I stroked her hair. “I’m sorry…”

“That’s just it, Herobrine,” she said after a few minutes. Her voice was fragile, like glass. “You don’t think… You just act… You’re so used to being alone and…” She was silent for a few more minutes. “I was alone for the longest time, too… So, so long, I forgot what it was like to feel… I never had a family, at least not one that I remember, or one that ever cared. I lived in an orphanage for the early years of my life. For so long, nobody cared. They hurt me, just like they hurt everybody there, but I was a target for some reason. They liked hurting me the worst… When I turned eight, I ran away. Escaped, more accurately, and I realized that I didn’t have to take the hurt, the anger, and the fear with me. Why take something so heavy, something that would bear on a fragile child’s shoulders like that?

“But there was something else that weighed heavy on my mind; on my heart. I looked for it for so many years. So, so many years. I gave up hope, eventually. I didn’t think I would ever find what I was looking for. I started living recklessly, carelessly. One night I didn’t pay attention, and I almost paid the ultimate price for it. But tragedies are blessings in disguise. That was the day that I met Steve. And that burden was finally, after so many years, lifted.  I think… That’s why you hate people, isn’t it. You stopped looking for what was missing like I did, and help didn’t reach you in time. You started getting scared of what you couldn’t feel or find, and that fear started coming out as hostility.”

I didn’t say anything. I think that she was right, at least to an extent. ‘Course, I wasn’t about to tell her that. My mystique, however, was rapidly dissolving with this human girl very quickly. “Or, I could just be a soulless demon, too.”

The girl gave a watery chuckle and sat up, looking at her knees. I lifted her face by her chin so that I could see her eyes. The firelight made it look like there were gold flecks in her irises. “I really am sorry, though, Dove.” For once, I meant it.

“Well, let’s say that I forgive you, but I’m not quite forgetting yet.” She stood up and looked around. “Where’s my stuff?”

“Your armor’s in my bag,” I said, also standing up and pulling it out. “I couldn’t carry you with it all on, so I had to take it off. Kinda bulky isn’t it.”

“Yeah. Help me with the straps.” She turned around and lifted up her long honey-colored ponytail so I could pull the leather straps tight. As soon as she buckled her sword to her waist, she picked up a torch and began to walk down the cave. I watched her for a second before following, staring at the hole in the armor where that diamond-tipped arrow had almost taken her life. Why? Why was I standing here, thinking that I would do anything,  _ anything, _ to protect this frail human girl’s back?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like coming up with chapter names.
> 
> Even before I watched Inuyasha, I seemed to have some liking for guys being like this. They're a lot of fun to write.


	15. Caves, Books, and Portals, Oh My!

Chapter 15

**_Caves, Books, and Portals, Oh My!_ **

_ Evanescence’s POV _

* * *

 

I was really starting to hate caves.

They seemed to be nothing but bad luck for me ever since I started questing alone. Once, when I was just starting out on my journeys, I went into a cave as a sort of rite of passage to join a certain guild. Inside, I had run into a huge group of cannibalistic bandits. Another time, it was a nest of cave spiders. Only about a week ago, I had been terrorized by the legendary demon of Minecraftia. And this time, I had fallen down a Well, run into a group of skeletons, almost died, all in the company of a guy who doesn’t know how to has no idea how to interact with human beings without a, killing them, or by making them feel worthless, awkward, or otherwise.

We’d been down here a long time. I’m not sure how long. More than a day, definitely. Maybe two. The food stores were starting to grow lower than before, no thanks to a certain somebody’s monstrous appetite, and I’m not talking about myself. The constant mob encounters were not helping. I can hold my own in a fight, and obviously Herobrine can too, but we’ve been on the move for who knows how long with dwindling supplies. Herobrine was right when we had first entered this place. He could go on for ages. He could fight nonstop, walk constantly, and still keep talking, all with little sustenance.

And as much as I hated to admit it, I couldn’t. I was mortal to the last bone. I was running on little sleep, fighting weirdly strong mobs every other hour, and eating far too little. Not like I was going to tell the demon that. He would harass me constantly.  _ Maybe _ .

It’s not like we hadn’t  _ tried _ to leave the caves. We had tried multiple times to go back the way we had come, but no matter where we went, we just seemed to end up deeper than we were before. Of course, we had no idea whether we really were deeper or not. But we felt we were. I had always heard stories of soldiers who got lost in ancient magical caves. Didn’t ever believe it ‘til now. Now here I was, wandering around getting low on supplies, not much to eat but my words.

“You ever heard of a Totem of Undying?” Herobrine asked casually. We had taken to exchanging war stories and random bits of information to pass the time between monster battles and long stretches of blank stone walls. It was a bit unnerving, but aside from the occasional coal spot, the tunnels were completely without ores. Maybe they had been mined, many years ago.

“A say what now?” I asked. My voice cracked a little out of the hoarseness caused by constant shouting during battles and a lack of use otherwise.

“Totem of Undying. Little gold amulet. Looks kinda like an angel.”

“I’ve heard of some soldiers using them in battle. Not much else. Never seen one. Why?”

“Just curious.” He hadn’t looked me once in the eyes since we had begun walking, despite talking to me completely normally otherwise. It, like the lack of ore on the walls, was really creepy. Almost frightening. I had no idea why he wasn’t looking at me, and I didn’t like it.

“No come on, why you asking?” I goaded on, trying to get him to tell me. The pale eyes continued to gaze straight ahead, glowing slightly. “Herobrine?” I prompted once again.

“You’re just weak, is all,” he shrugged at last. “Don’t want you dying on me if we’re gonna find Steve.”

“Why you-” my mouth fell open and I couldn’t find or form the words that would encompass the indignance that had blossomed in my chest. Was my fighting really worth that little to him? I was going to tell him off, angry at his response, but…

He laughed.

It wasn’t a mean laugh. Just a laugh. Something totally pure and unexpected, so much so that my annoyance was immediately gone with the sound. He turned, eyes glowing, and smiled. “I’m kidding, Dove,” he said quietly, nudging my arm with his own.

We walked on for several long moments of silence. “Well, duh,” I answered belatedly, lamely, unable to form words suddenly.  _ Herobrine had just complimented me? _ Well, I guess that the statement could pass for a compliment, maybe. I mean, it’s not like he  _ really _ complimented me, right? The Nether King? Demon Ghost of Minecraftia? Yeah, no, I don’t think so. I chuckled a little under my breath.

“What?” I looked at him in surprise, searching madly for some sort of excuse. He hadn’t been reading my mind, apparently. In fact, I’d noticed a definite drop in the amount of mind reading as of late.

“I was just…” I was saved by my growling stomach. Herobrine snickered, and I scowled in response.

“Hungry much?” he asked sarcastically. “Or were you trying to growl at me and be all threatening?”

I decided at that moment to forget any thought that this man could possibly be kind at all. “No, as a matter of fact,” I answered with as much dignity as I could muster. “I was just going to point out that thanks to you, our food stores are at an all time low, and that I just might end up starving to death down here in this cave.”

“What? We’re almost out of food?” The demon looked genuinely surprised, actually stopping in his tracks and reaching for my satchel.

“ _ Yeah _ , ‘coz  _ you _ keep eating all of my food whenever you can get you mitts on them even though you don’t need to eat.” I twisted the bag away so that Herobrine’s fingers just brushed the top of it.

“You spoiled me with all that food you fed me at your place,” whined the demon, reaching once again for the satchel. “It tasted good, and now I’m addicted to food. Will you just _give me_ the Notch-damned bag already?” Scowling, I handed it over. He gazed long and hard at the inside contents, his glowing eyes flickering every now and again before he looked back up.

“We need to get more food.” No  _ dip _ , genius! He winced. Obviously he had heard the thought. Not that I felt bad, I mean. Kinda. “Where do you think we can get some?”

“Brine, we are miles underground in this labyrinth of a cave system. How do you expect me to know where I’m going to get more food. Where do  _ you _ think I’m gonna get more?”

He contemplated my question for a moment, handing the bag back into my possession, where I began to sling it back over my head. “Actually, we could probably go to my place and get some more if we could find a Nether Portal.”

My hand slipped a little at the bag strap, and it fell into place against my hip. “ _ Your place _ ?” I scoffed. “ _ You _ have a house. In the Nether. A hose where you keep  _ human _ food, fit for living.”

“No need to sound so surprised, Dove,” said the stupid idiot lightly, waving a dismissive hand in my direction and turning back down the tunnel. “I  _ am _ a collector, among other things, after all. Gotta have a place to stash all my stuff, right?” From his tone, I guessed I never wanted to find out what “other things” meant.  _ Hah _ . Jokes on  _ him _ . I jogged to his side, now thoroughly curious.

“So wait, why the heck would you have edible food in a house in the Nether?” I pressed, gazing sidelong at him.

“I dunno,” he shrugged.

“You a hoarder?”

“What? No!”

I didn’t need mindreading to tell he was lying to me, and I laughed. We continued on in a relatively comfortable silence. I was even beginning to fancy the idea of taking back calling him a jerk and an idiot with how nice he was being for shutting up when he stopped suddenly, standing stock still and looking around warily without moving his head.

“Brine?” I asked tentatively, looking at him.

“There’s a stronghold nearby...”

I was no stranger to strongholds, thank Notch, but I wish I were. The places were terrifying; not much was scarier than hearing an Enderman in the dark, not being able to open your eyes because if you did, death was almost a surety.

“That means there’s a library.” Herobrine began to walk forward suddenly, almost running and totally focused on his destination.

“W-wait,” I sputtered, taken aback by his sudden departure and ran after him, stumbling a little at the beginning. “Hero...  _ Herobrine _ !”

Libraries weren’t foreign things to me. Half of my expeditions while I was gone on my years adventuring had been based on information I found in old tomes and scrolls in libraries. But… Why would there be a library here? Of all places, why  _ here _ , in a cave that hadn’t seen the light of day since the creation of the world?

“Herobrine, where are you going?” I shouted at him. He was well ahead of me, not even turning back at my call. “Herobrine!”

He stopped suddenly a couple minutes later, barely breathing. I, on the other hand, was dying, breathing hard and fast from sprinting for so long, gasping and clawing at my armor as though I could get to the stitch in my side. I couldn’t yell at him for running off, though I definitely wanted to. It took several long breaths for me to regain enough ability to look up at the thing which Herobrine had stopped at.

It was the entrance to a huge cavern. The light of our torch didn’t reach the far sides, nor up and down the tunnel. But below us, there was what looked like a rail system and shelves upon shelves of…

“Books,” I gasped, not just with breathlessness from running. It had something to do with the breathtaking amazingness of the library; it wasn’t huge or anything, but it was just  _ there _ . It was just there, sitting like it was normal for shelves of books to just exist in the middle of cave systems, ancient and dusty, with ever burning torches lighting their cobwebbed aisles.

“No dip, genius.” Herobrine gave me a pointed grin, clearly reveling in his small revenge, and jumped from our tunnel into the library. I followed after a moment.

When I found him again, he was standing in front of an archway set in the floor and wall, made of black stone and four meters tall; it was unmistakably a Nether Portal.

“Where did this come from?” I asked, dumbstruck by the fact that there just  _ happened _ to be a portal to the place we needed to get to, just sitting here in this library. Herobrine shrugged.

“A lot of these really, really ancient caves have libraries with Nether Portals in them,” he said matter of factly. “These caves are older than a lot that I’ve seen, so it was worth a try. You got a flint and steel?”

I nodded and rummaged in the bag before handing him the fire starter. It took him only a couple of tries to get sparks, and the moment the bright lights touched the obsidian arch, the portal spread into existence, all purple and swirly and just plain creepy.

“Well, ladies first,” said Herobrine, straightening up and dusting off his hands. “After you, Dove.”

I didn’t move.

“Oi, Dove, you chickening out?” Herobrine looked back at me, a scowl on his brow, but then he stopped, looking wide-eyed at the reason why I didn’t move.

Three sets of glowing purple were staring unblinkingly at me, with great, toothy black maws unhinged as they suddenly let loose hissing screams, and rushed forward with their long fingered and clawed hands to finish us.v

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason behind the chapter title is... i was lazy and unmotivated, and it was late at night and I laughed at it, and I was just in a play for "The Wizard of Oz"? IDK
> 
> I'm gonna tend to lean towards Minecraft things before the updates after minecraft was bought by Microsoft; I just like it better, and everything was just so much simpler.
> 
> THIS IS THE MOST RECENT CHAPTER, HERE YA GO!! You're all caught up now. Enjoy.


End file.
